A Fish Out Of Water
by critic456
Summary: Percy Jackson is a tough kid from a tough background, no stranger to gang related activity, after all, his father is one of the city's toughest gangsters. So when he is sent to one of New York's best schools, he automatically knows he doesn't fit in. However, he soon meets Annabeth Chase, the most popular girl in school, and discovers that she has a bit of a dark side. AU. Very OOC
1. Chapter 1

"Percy, are you paying attention?" Mr. D. asked, sounding frustrated.

Percy Jackson was no stranger to the Principle's office. Many times at Yancy High School, he had been called there, to answer for acts of troublemaking the school believed he had committed. Granted, they weren't usually wrong, Percy was far from the model student at Yancy. As a matter of fact, Yancy was a school that severely lacked model students, having acquired a reputation as one of the worst schools in New York in terms of behavior. This was largely in part to the large gang activity in and around the area. Most of the older students were involved in a gang of some sort, and most of the younger students aspired to be. Percy Jackson, about to enter the 12th Grade, was one of those students. Like most of the teenagers who lived on his estate, he had had little choice, but for Percy, he had practically been told since birth that the gang would be his future. Why? Well, it may have something to do with the little fact that his father ran the gang. Yes, that's right, Percy Jackson's father, who was known but most by just his nickname Poseidon, was in charge of one of the largest gangs in New York.

It was actually because of Poseidon that Percy found himself in the Principle's office on this Tuesday morning. He sat in a chair, opposite the desk where Mr. D was sitting. He'd been in this situation hundreds of times; the difference with this one was that he did not recognize the office, or the man in front of him, because he had never met Mr. D before this morning. Mr. D was the Principle of Goode High School, Percy's new school. As Percy looked around, he thought to himself how different this room was to the one he had frequently visited at Yancy.

"Percy?!" he half yelled

"Mmm? Yeah- yeah, I'm listening" Percy replied. Having ADHD did mean he found it hard to pay attention, but he also really didn't care.

"Ok then, what did I just say?" Mr. D asked, a line teacher's loved to throw at Percy when they knew he wasn't listening.

"Um, I'm here for my own benefit?" He answered

"Along those lines, yes. You are here because your father feels that you should get the best possible education for your final year, so that you can better your life in the future, his words, not mine." Mr. D told him. Somehow, Percy highly doubted that, his father had never taken an interest in his education before now. In fact, his father had rarely taken an interest in him in general, leaving him to be raised by his mother. While they both lived on the same estate, Percy's mother and father did not live together, and while his father had always been present in his life, he had not been there for Percy, he had not been a dad to Percy.

"So anyway" Mr. D continued, "You will carry out your final year of high school here at Goode. Now Goode is an excellent school with an excellent record of excellent grades, blah blah blah. You get the point, excellent" Mr. D sounded almost as uninterested as Percy was.

"We here at Goode are not used to having a student of your… background here so-"

"You mean poor!" Percy snapped. He knew what Mr. D had meant by it. Goode was a school full of New Yorks richest. Kids who lived in huge houses and drove to school in Mercedes, whose parents all had memberships to golf clubs and worked big city jobs. Percy knew the type of people he would be spending his Senior year around. He really was annoyed at his father for sending him here.

"No, I mean the involvement in the gang Percy" Mr. D said calmly. "Yes we know all about your friends and what you get up to. The only reason I let you into the school is because your father and I were once very good friends, and honestly he isn't a person I want to get on the wrong side of" Well, Percy couldn't blame him for that. Poseidon was not the most understanding of people, and Percy had often been witness to him at his angriest. As a young child, it had been Percy's biggest fear, to anger his father, and no matter how many times his mother assured him that Poseidon did love him deep down, Percy was always doubtful.

"Now, as I was saying before you interrupted me" Mr. D said, glaring slightly at Percy, "we aren't used to having a student of your background at Goode, and under any other circumstance, you would not have been allowed in, but your father assured me that there would be no serious behavior incidents with you. Now, I will ask you, will there be any serious behavior issues with you Percy?" He added an edge to his voice that Percy recognized as intimidation, as if that would work.

"No." Percy replied, deadpan.

"And why is that Percy?"

"Because my father assured you." He said, a slight smirk on his face. Mr. D narrowed his eyes, before speaking up.

"Honestly, Percy Jackson, you may be the most interesting student to walk through my door in years. Everyone at this school is all the same, 'Yes Mr. D' 'No Mr. D' 'It wont happen again Mr. D', it gets boring. You get the kids who are scared that I'll tell their parents and they'll lose their car privileges, or you get the kids who think their money makes them untouchable. You, on the other hand, are neither; you are nothing like any student we have had for years. However, as much as I may welcome a bit of change, I cannot risk you causing any trouble" Percy was surprised, he assumed Mr. D would looks down on him, but he almost sounded like he could relate to Percy. How did Mr. D know his father again?

"Go off to class now, I believe your first lesson is-" He paused as he looked at Percy's new timetable "-Maths, with Mrs. Dodds." He seemed to smirk a bit at that "Good luck with her" He added.

Just before Percy walked out of the door, he turned to Mr. D one last time.

"Sir, if it was such a risk, why would you let me into the school?" Percy had been wondering that since Mr. D had brought it up. Surely he wasn't worth the risk?

"Well Percy, I looked at both sides. If I let you in, I may have a horde of angry rich parents who don't want you near their precious children, but on the other hand, if I don't let you in, I would be in your father's bad books, and honestly, I'd rather face the parents head." He laughed slightly once he finished. What he had said surprised Percy. He always knew that his father scared people, but he never realized how much power his father truly had until now.

"It was just the fact that my father scares you?" He asked, inquisitively.

"Yes, well that and, honestly, I think that you may have potential," He added. That completely caught Percy off guard. No teacher had ever said anything of the sort to him before. "But you didn't hear that from me, now get to class"

Percy was still slightly too shocked to react instantly. He doubted Mr. D said that to a lot of students.

"Get to class!" Mr. D was almost yelling by now. It was enough to snap Percy out of his confused state. He left Mr. D's office and slowly made his way to Maths.

As he walked down the corridors, Percy thought about his old school, his old friends, his life back at home. At Yancy, he'd had fun, he'd had friends. Here, he already felt like an outsider, and he hadn't even met anyone yet. He walked past a trophy cabinet full of whatever sporting achievements the school had won. Yancy never had anything like this. The trophies would've probably been stolen anyway. As he examined the trophies, he worked out that Goode had a very good football team, with more than half the trophies belonging to them.

Percy pondered whether or not he should try out, but in a second erased that thought. Sure, Percy loved football, he watched it whenever he could, which was rare, and played whenever he could too, which was even rarer. He thought about how his friends would mock him. Percy Jackson playing high school football. The jokes would be relentless.

That was the kind of people Percy hung out with. To the outside world, they were gang members, but to Percy, they were more like brothers, family. Some of them really were family. He had a half brother, Tyson, and a cousin, Nico. Outside of them, there was also Grover, Percy's best friend. Grover was always weak. He scared easily, and was one of the least violent people you'd ever meet. Grover didn't seem like a typical gang member, but he had been raised on the estate just like Percy and all the other guys, and they all looked out for Grover. There wasn't the attitude of leave the weakest behind. That was what no one understood about Percy and his friends. Outsiders branded them as cruel and hurtful and violent, and there were definitely times when they were, but they weren't all bad all the time. They really were like family.

Percy finally arrived outside the correct room. Before he entered, he paused. He could run right now. He could leave the school, go back to the estate. No doubt Nico was skipping school, he usually did nowadays. But then, Percy thought about his mother's reaction, disappointment no doubt, and then his father's, anger. Then he remembered Mr. D's words, "_I think that you may have potential"_. Well it was time to find out if that was true or not. He pushed the door open and walked into class.


	2. Chapter 2

-Annabeth-

"Annabeth, get up! I won't say it again." Frederick Chase yelled. Annabeth Chase slowly raised her head and gazed at the bright numbers on her alarm clock. _6:07. _She mentally groaned, and knew that she had 3 more minutes before the shrill beeping of the alarm clock went off again. She sat up slowly, stretching and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"I'm up!" She loudly replied, then yawned, "I'm up." The second time was too quiet for anyone else to hear, that one was Annabeth talking to herself, a habit she had.

Annabeth was usually a great one for getting up as soon as her alarm clock went off, but today was different. It was after all, the first day of school. But in no time, she would be back into her normal routine.

As she slowly raised herself out of bed, she gazed out of her window at the sun rising. The brilliant yellow and orangey colour landing on the ground, covering everything she laid her eyes on. Annabeth stared for a minute, pondering the last time that she'd seen a sunrise, and one this beautiful at that. Plenty of sunsets, but never sunrises.

"Annabeth-" Frederick Chase walked in briskly, already dressed in his smart shirt and trousers, a tie hanging over his shoulder. He was balding, but still had enough blonde hair left on his head to hide it reasonably well, and had kind brown eyes. "-oh, you're up. Well then…" He said, expectantly, "Get showered and dressed." Then gave Annabeth a look, one that she knew all too well. He was in a rush today, and she didn't want to make his day anymore stressful. Her father was the Vice President of a major New York University, and Annabeth knew that it took its toll on her father; since accepting the offer 6 years ago he seemed to have aged 12.

Annabeth groggily made her way to the bathroom, passing her brother's room on the way. Her twin brothers, Bobby and Matthew, were still sleeping. Then, once in the bathroom, Annabeth stripped down and entered the shower.

The second the hot water hit her body she knew that it had been worth getting out of bed this morning. The shower was pure bliss. Water trickled over the curves of her body and dampened her curly blonde hair. This was the perfect way to start her morning. For Annabeth, the shower was a retreat, a sanctuary, a place where no one could interrupt her or bother her. It was relaxing beyond anything else in the world. Sometimes she would use the time to think, and sometimes she would use the time to escape her thoughts, to turn off her brain and just relish the feeling of the hot water.

But all good things must come to an end, and roughly 15 minutes later, Annabeth finished up in the shower, before getting out and wiping the mist from the mirror. Then she grabbed a towel and began to dry off, starting with her legs, and slowly working her way up to her hair. If Annabeth was being honest with herself, as she stared into the mirror, she loved her luscious blonde curls. Everyone saw those curls and immediately thought of Annabeth, which she loved. But also looking into the mirror, she saw a feature that she didn't care for so much, her striking grey eyes, something that she had inherited from her mother. There were times when she looked at herself and thought that her eyes looked quite nice, but more often than not, she felt that they were dull, colourless and unexciting.

As she re-entered her room and started to pull out clothes, she thought about the day ahead of her, and then about her friends. She couldn't wait to see Thalia again, who had been away for nearly two months during the holidays. Annabeth herself had been in Italy for a month, staying with her Aunt and Uncle. Thalia was Annabeth's best friend, had been since Kindergarten, and despite their extremely different personalities, they saw each other as sisters. While Thalia was into punk style and dark colours, Annabeth loved expensive designer clothes. But like all best friends, they didn't let these differences get in the way of their friendship. It had been so long since Annabeth had seen her; she almost couldn't contain her excitement.

Then she thought about the other people she would see. She was, after all, extremely popular and she knew it, so she had no doubt a lot of people would be glad to see her again. Her mind wandered to her other friends. Silena Beauregard, one of the only girls Annabeth would admit to being less attractive than, was a stunningly beautiful, fun-loving party girl, who always had a pointless fashion tip to give you. Like Thalia, Annabeth had been friends with Silena since Elementary School. Piper McLean, the youngest girl, not only in their group, but their year, who at times looked so much like Silena that anyone who didn't know them would swear they were sisters, was the quiet one in the group. Rachel Dare, the arty one was also the biggest troublemaker, although Thalia gave her stiff competition. And finally, Katie Gardener, who was, to the teachers at Goode anyway, the quietest, most humble, down to earth, and just gosh darn wonderful girl in the world, however, Annabeth knew different. Katie had a mean streak, and was not a person you wanted to be on the wrong side of. That's what Annabeth loved about her.

A sly smirk crept across Annabeth's face as recalled some good memories. Her and her friends were pretty much untouchable in school, as witless teachers fawned over them, praising them at every turn, and other students were far too scared to even approach them. They ruled the school, and they knew it. Annabeth couldn't wait to see them all again. Of course, they weren't the only people she was looking foreword to seeing. There was also Luke, her boyfriend. The smirk on her face became a smile, as she thought about seeing him, not that she hadn't seen him in the holidays. No, in fact, Annabeth had seen quite a bit of Luke in the holidays. The smile on her face grew as she recalled one time when they had had his house all to themselves and-

"NO I GET TO USE IT FIRST!" Her brothers arguing over who got to use the bathroom first broke her train of thought from that particularly nice memory. With them now awake, Annabeth took one last quick glance in the mirror at her choice of clothes, a pair of designer jeans that hugged her waist, and a simple t-shirt that was low cut enough for her liking, but not so low cut that her parents would throw a fit and make her change. Then again, she highly doubted that they'd notice this morning.

* * *

As she made her way into the large, expensive modern kitchen, the smell of fresh coffee hit her nose. She instantly walked over to the coffee maker and poured herself a cup. There was nothing like a pleasant cup of coffee to start your day; that was Annabeth's motto, or one of them anyway. Then, she walked over to the fruit bowl and picked up an apple. Just as she took a large, crunchy bite, in walked her mother, Athena Chase.

"Hey mom." Annabeth said, tentatively. She was never sure what kind of mood her mother would be in. "Sleep well last night?"

It took Athena a few seconds to acknowledge that Annabeth had even talked.

"Well." She replied, curtly. Annabeth sighed. I guess she's in one of those moods today, she thought to herself.

Athena Chase was one of America's leading architects. Her big business meant big money for the Chase household, but it also meant that she was around less. Combine that with the fact that Frederick Chase never took a day off, it meant that Annabeth pretty much lived by herself half the time, well, apart from her brothers, of course. Athena was a tall, elegant woman, with long flowing black hair, which was pulled into a ponytail today, and the same piercing grey eyes that Annabeth had. Annabeth felt that they looked much more intimidating on her mother.

Just then, Athena turned to face Annabeth, those grey eyes making contact with Annabeth's. Athena always looked like she was about to start a staring contest with you, and not one she would lose either.

"Are you ready for school?" Athena asked. There was very little interest in her voice.

"Uh, yeah…" Annabeth answered. "Yeah everything's… everything's ready." Why did she get so nervous around her mother? It was as if she was afraid of messing up in front of her. Maybe she thought that if she was perfect, her mother's eyes would show an emotion other than boredom or frustration, or maybe her glare would be slightly less intense.

"Annabeth, this is your final year of school. That means you must work harder than you've ever worked before." Athena said, matter-of-factly.

"But mom, I already work-" Annabeth was cut off.

"Harder than you've ever worked before." She repeated, slower this time. "It's for your own future, your own benefit." Annabeth wanted to scream out loud. She already worked harder than anyone else, just attempting to live up to her mother's high expectations. She never pushed Bobby and Matthew like this.

"Honey, lay off a bit, eh?" Frederick walked into the room. "It's her first day of the year. She knows how important this year is, don't you Annie?" He turned to Annabeth, with his eyebrows raised. Annabeth nodded slightly.

"Good girl, now come and give your dad a hug" He held out his arms, and Annabeth got up and embraced him. She had always been more of a daddy's girl, and Frederick Chase was the best father she could've asked for. She just wished he wasn't always working so much. She missed the times they used to spend together, just the two of them.

"No matter what happens this year, we'll always love you Annie, you know that right?" He softly whispered in her ear, loud enough so only she could hear it.

"I know." Annabeth wasn't so sure she believed her own words though. She didn't even want to imagine her mother's reaction if she didn't get the best possible grades this year.

"Ok, I'm off. Bye boys!" Frederick shouted up the stairs. When they replied, he turned to Annabeth. "Bye Annie," as he kissed her forehead. "Have a great day."

Just as he was about to turn around and out of the door, Annabeth called out "I love you dad."

"Love you too." He said without hesitation, then closed the door and left for work.

"I'm off too," Athena marched towards the door "remember what I said." She didn't even look at Annabeth as she walked past her.

"Love you mom…" Annabeth said, timidly, as if she was scared of the reply.

"Me too" Athena responded, emotionlessly, before she walked out of the door.

Silence engulfed the room. Annabeth was left on her own, with an empty cup of coffee and a half eaten apple. She pondered her mother's reply. '_Me too_.' Annabeth had always assured herself that her mother did love her, but had a hard time showing it. But that reply, the detached, blank reply had made her think twice. At least she had replied, she hadn't walked out without saying a word. But a nagging voice at the back of her head told Annabeth that her mother hadn't actually said the words. Annabeth tried to recall the last time her mother had even said that she loved her. 'Surely, it goes without saying a mother loves her daughter, right?' Annabeth questioned, asking no one in particular. Suddenly, she felt a tear on her cheek. She furiously wiped it away, Annabeth Chase does not cry. Annabeth Chase does not need anyone else's approval. And on that thought she walked out of the house, grabbing her bag on the way. Before she knew it she was in her car, on the way to school.

* * *

As Annabeth's red Porsche pulled up to the school car park, she checked herself in the mirror one last time, before she got out, locked the car and made her way to the gate of the school. She walked with a confidence that was the complete opposite of the Annabeth who had been craving her mother's approval 25 minutes ago. She was early. She always liked to be early to school. She enjoyed a few minutes peace before her friends showed up. It was nothing against them, it was just something Annabeth enjoyed.

She made her way to her locker, and as she opened it up, she looked inside at the pictures she had up in there. They were lots of pictures of her with Thalia and Silena, ranging from their time at Elementary School all the way up to last year, as well as pictures with the other girls. Then, of course, there were pictures of her and Luke. After putting her books in her locker, she shut the door, and as if on cue, her friends turned the corner. As soon as Annabeth saw Thalia, she broke into a smile, one that Thalia matched.

"Annabeth!" Thalia practically shouted as she wrapped her best friend in a hug.

"Thals, you look amazing." Annabeth exclaimed, "I see that the Caribbean sun was kind to you." Underneath her punk clothes, Thalia was definitely a shade or two darker than she had been in June, when Annabeth last saw her.

"I could say the same about you." Thalia replied. "How was Italy?"

"Ooh, yeah, how was Italy Annabeth? Meet anyone… interesting?" Silena chipped in, suggestively.

"Good to see you too Silena." Annabeth said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, whatever, seriously though, did you meet any boys?" Silena could be very persistent when gossip was involved.

"I have a boyfriend." Annabeth reminded her. "Besides, I don't kiss and tell." She added cheekily.

"Oh you so did." Katie Gardener voiced. By now, Katie, Rachel and Piper had all turned up, and were swapping holiday stories.

"Seriously Annie, what was his name?" Silena was like a dog with a bone now.

Just as Annabeth was about to answer, she saw Luke out of the corner of her eye, and decided against giving Silena details. After all, what Luke didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right?

"Hello Miss Chase, how are you today?" Luke asked, attempting to be funny. For as talented and good looking as Luke was, he did not have a good sense of humour. The only time Annabeth laughed at Luke's jokes was when they were so bad it was literally laughable.

"Not too bad Mr. Castellan, yourself?" Deciding to indulge him in his bad joke.

"I'm good. How was Italy?" He asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. Annabeth had seen Luke a lot before she went away, but not at all since she got back a week ago.

"Oh, y'know, fun. I had a good time, met some great people." Annabeth grinned as she recalled her previous conversation with Silena. Silena herself was trying to hide her laugh from Luke, and Thalia was just looking at him as if he was the dumbest person in the world. But Luke apparently, was oblivious to this, as he said-

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, you deserved break."

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" As she gave Silena a sly wink that Luke couldn't see. At that, Silena couldn't hold her laughter in anymore, which made all of them laugh too. Well, everyone except Luke, who was looking very confused.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"Nothing, babe, nothing." Annabeth said reassuringly. "Come on girls, we have to get to Class. Maths with Mrs. Dodds first thing." She added in a sarcastic tone. She heard Silena groan. Just as they were about to walk off, she felt Luke pull at her arm lightly.

"Can we talk for a minute? He asked.

"Sure, guys, I'll catch up with you." As the girls made their way to class, Annabeth moved closer to Luke. "So what do you want to talk about then?" She asked quietly.

"I missed you." That was all he said. He moved his face closer to hers, but she moved away, smiling.

"Luke, we'll be late for class." She joked with him. She could feel his hands moving further down her back until they reached the hem of her shirt. "Luke?..." Annabeth was enjoying the attention, but she really didn't want to be late for Mrs. Dodds class.

"What?" He asked innocently, "I said I missed you…" And then he pressed his lips to hers. After about five seconds, Annabeth pulled away, still smiling. Luke's hands were now lower than her shirt.

"I missed you too, but I really can't be late for class." She said, unwinding herself from his arms. "I'll see you at Lunch, yeah?"

"Ok." Luke sounded disappointed, and looked it too as he trudged off to his class.

With that, Annabeth walked briskly down the corridor, and entered Mrs Dodds' classroom. She was just in time. She found a seat in between Silena and Rachel, the only one of her friends in this class, and pulled out her textbook.

Mrs. Dodds walked in, looking as miserable as ever. She was small, 50 something and always had a scowl on her face.

"Ok class, turn to page four of the textbooks and answer questions one to eight in silence." She emphasized the last two words. It was well known in the school that Mrs. Dodds classroom was as quiet as a morgue.

Annabeth was halfway through question six, further than anyone else, when the door opened. Suddenly, the sound of pens on paper stopped, as everyone looked up to see a tall, relatively well built boy standing in the doorway, with messy black hair, and sea green eyes.

"And who, may I ask, are you and why are you late?" Mrs. Dodds sounded annoyed, as usual.

"I was with the Principal," he responded, looking uncomfortable. Everyone in the room was watching this exchange. "I'm the new kid, Percy Jackson."

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoy this second chapter. Just one thing.**** I know I spelt Principal wrong in the first chapter, but being British, it's not a word I've ever had to spell. And I apologise for any other mistakes I have made or may make. I try to keep it to a minimum.****  
**


	3. Chapter 3

-Percy-

"I was with the Principal," Percy said. He was very aware that everyone in the room was looking at him, but he never broke eye contact with the short woman standing at the front of the class. He made an educated guess that she was Mrs. Dodds. "I'm the new kid, Percy Jackson."

"Well Mr. Jackson, from now on you will be on time to every single on of my lessons, is that clear?" She barked. Percy stared at her, not sure how to respond. But before he could, Mrs. Dodds carried on.

"Not one minute late, not five minutes late, and certainly not," she paused to look at her watch, "twelve minutes late, as you are right now! Now I will ask again, is that clear, Mr. Jackson?" She said his name with such disdain any onlooker would've guessed that she had hated this boy for years, even though she had only just met him.

"Yes." Percy replied, flatly. However, it seemed that his simple response was not enough for Mrs. Dodds as she moved closer to him.

"Yes… what?" She asked quietly, but with menace in her voice. Much more menace than was normal for a high school teacher to have when talking to a student.

Percy knew what she wanted him to say, but he had never been the type of person to give in to bullies, and right now, Mrs. Dodds was singling him out for the simple fact that she could. Just as he was about to retort with a witty remark that would no doubt end him up in detention, he remembered back to his conversation with Mr. D, about how he would not have any behavior issues. He guessed that starting an argument with a teacher in his first lesson would fall under that category.

"Yes, Mrs. Dodds…" He instead chose to say, saying it just as quietly as she had. God, what would his friends think of him? Choosing to avoid a confrontation instead of standing up for himself. And what about his father? Would he be proud to see Percy like this? After all, he had sent Percy here. But despite that, Percy felt Poseidon was much more likely to share the opinion of his friends. '_Always stand up for yourself.' _Wasn't that something he told Percy once?

"Sit down Mr. Jackson." Mrs. Dodds shrill voice interrupted his thoughts. "Page four, questions one to eight."

Percy suddenly realized that he had been standing; staring into space for a few seconds, and was very aware that everyone in the class was looking at him. He quickly looked around for an empty seat and found one at the back of the class. Perfect. He was happy to sit as far away from that psycho Maths teacher as possible.

As he sat down and pulled out his textbook, he examined the classroom a bit more closely. Mrs. Dodds seemed to have a 'Most Boring Classroom in the World' contender. The bare walls were a dark shade of grey, with only the farthest one having a whiteboard on it. It didn't help that the windows barely let in any light. Percy turned his gaze from the boring classroom to the boring maths questions. Page four, question one. He looked at it; apparently, they were polynomials, whatever the hell those were. This lesson was going to be a long one.

Percy struggled through the questions, and in 30 minutes, managed to reach question four. Then, with ten minutes to go, Mrs. Dodds stood up, took out a whiteboard pen, and proceeded to write down an equation on the board. Then, she slowly turned to the class, her eyes slightly narrowed. Percy was beginning to wonder what type of teachers Mr. D hired here at Goode.

"Right class, eyes forward. Now, if X cubed add X squared subtract five X add three equals zero, what is X? [_x_3+_x_2−5_x_+3=0]. Percy heard everyone quickly scribbling down his or her working out. He however, had no idea what Mrs. Dodds had even said. Maths just went in one ear and out the other.

"Right, who has the answer?" Mrs. Dodds asked the class. A few hands went up. "Let's see…" Percy saw her lock her predator like gaze onto his. Shit.

"Mr. Jackson, do you have the answer?" She feigned politeness.

"No, Mrs. Dodds, I don't" He said loudly. He wanted her to know that he knew her game.

"And why is that?" He could see that she was enjoying this, but Percy wouldn't just give her the satisfaction.

"Because I couldn't work it out. You see, I've never been taught how to. Honestly, I blame the teacher." At that last part, her smile faltered, and her eyes hardened. Percy could feel the tension rising in the room. Most other students were looking down, scared to make eye contact. Percy on the other hand, kept his cool composure.

"You're blaming me?" Mrs. Dodds questioned, as if to double check what she had heard. Now it was Percy's turn to have fun.

"Oh, oh no," he responded, acting innocent, "no, you thought I was blaming you? No, I was placing blame on the teachers from my old school. You see Mrs. Dodds, I was a pupil at Yancy High School, not the greatest school, as you probably know, and one of the reasons for that was because, well, they didn't have very good maths teachers, not like you. You may be the best teacher I've ever had the pleasure of wasting time in the lesson of. You know, my father always said that you can tell a lot about a school by the quality of it's maths teachers, and if you're anything to go by, I think I'll love Goode." Percy finished, his little speech dripping in sarcasm.

Now Percy didn't think the tension could increase, but he was wrong. This wasn't tension you could cut with a simple knife, you'd need a machete, or a chainsaw, or a samurai sword, like Butch from Pulp Fiction. He had expected Mrs. Dodds to explode, to go into a fury, to transform into one of the Devil's minions and eat him, but instead, she just stared at him, the gleeful expression gone from her face, her eyes never leaving his.

"Does anyone else have the correct answer to the question?" Her voice sounded much quieter than it had previously been. Two rows in front of Percy, a girl with blonde curly hair raised her hand. Percy looked at her for a minute; she seemed to be the only student who wasn't afraid right now, with her head held up high. She oozed confidence, Percy somewhat admired that.

"Yes, Annabeth?" Mrs. Dodds pointed to her

"X can equal one, or negative three." She answered.

"Correct, well done Annabeth."

The class sat in silence for a minute, before the bell sounded. However, much to Percy's surprise, the class didn't move, they looked as if they were waiting for something. Mrs. Dodds saw this too, so answered Percy's unasked question.

"No homework today." She said, before throwing one last menacing look at Percy. With that, everyone stood up; looking slightly surprised by the whole 'no homework thing'. As everyone began filing into the corridor on the way to his or her next lesson, Percy lagged behind. Mrs. Dodds was still looking at him, her eyes burrowing into his. He broke eye contact, feeling uncomfortable, and as he moved his eyes from Mrs. Dodds dark eyes, he met another pair of eyes, a pair of piercing grey eyes, eyes that gave the impression of an impending storm. Percy then realized to whom they belonged, the blonde girl, the one who answered the question, but more importantly, the one who hadn't been nervous or afraid of Mrs. Dodds, What was her name again? Annabelle? No, Annabeth. That was it. As Percy looked at her, he realized that she was beautiful. Stunning. Striking. Neither broke the eye contact, and then, Percy watched as Annabeth's lips moved slightly, and then she smiled. But this wasn't an ordinary smile, this was a devilish smile. This was a mischievous smile. This was the type of smile Percy had seen on gang members that were about to 'teach some asshole a lesson', this was a smile that told Percy enough about Annabeth to know that she was not necessarily good news. The smile, combined with the look in her eyes, seemed to say

"We're gonna have some fun together Percy Jackson, you and me."

Percy acknowledged all of this, and then let a smile of his own creep across his face, a perfect copy of hers. In that one second, Percy could've sworn he saw lightning flash across her stormy eyes.

Then, like that, she walked out of the door, after her friends. The whole thing had lasted maybe ten seconds. Percy realized, not for the first time this morning, he was left standing like an idiot, staring into nothing. He quickly left, not sparing Mrs. Dodds a second glance, and made his way to History.

* * *

The rest of Percy's lessons went by smoothly, he managed to avoid annoying any more of Goode's teachers. He noticed that this Annabeth girl was also in his History class, and judging by the amount of questions she answered correctly, Percy guessed that she was pretty damn clever. However, she didn't give him a second glance. He wasn't sure if he expected one or not, but that look earlier definitely meant something. He was sure of it.

His History teacher was Mr. Brunner, an old guy in a wheelchair. At first, Percy wasn't quite sure what to expect, but he seemed nice enough. Percy had come to the conclusion that any teacher would be better than Mrs. Dodds. When Mr. Brunner introduced himself, Percy got the impression that he was the complete opposite of the teacher spectrum from Mrs. Dodds.

"Percy was it? Not any relation to Perseus are you?" he asked, with a laugh. It was clearly a joke, but not one Percy got.

"Who? Who's Perseus?" Percy replied, baffled.

"Perseus? The Greek Hero? Son of Zeus?" He quickly realized Percy did not understand the reference. He sighed. "Take a seat Percy."

Finally, the bell rang for lunch. Percy couldn't help noticing people gathering with their group of friends, chatting, having a good time. Percy was, once again, left standing like an idiot. It was becoming an annoying frequency today. He silently blamed his father. He'd had friends at Yancy, he'd been comfortable at Yancy, and he hadn't felt out of place at Yancy. As he made his way to his locker, deciding that there was nothing better to do, he looked at the people he now shared a school with.

Percy could tell, just by looking at them, that these kids had it easy. These trust fund kids who only wore designer clothes, who turned up at school in Porsches and Mercedes. They didn't understand what the real world was like, what real suffering was. Percy highly doubted that any of them had ever seen what he'd seen, experienced what he'd experienced. Had any of them watched their own mother go hungry just so her son could eat? No. Percy instantly decided he hated all of them, every single person in this school.

But then, some part of him made him think otherwise. He didn't actually know any of these people. Who was he to judge them? Was he better than them? No, he had just been ready to label them as one thing based on their class and wealth, something people had done to him his entire life. They couldn't help what social class they were born into any more than he could. But that also didn't mean they had the right to be assholes about it. It was all too much for Percy to take; he needed a minute to think it through, to collect his thoughts. He reached his locker and looked around. By now, the hallway was practically empty; Percy guessed everyone was outside or in the canteen. He was grateful for the quiet. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone walking down the hallway, a tall African American kid. He suddenly looked at Percy. He looked familiar, very familiar, but...

"Percy?" the kid uttered in disbelief. Then it hit Percy, he recognized him.

Charles Beckendorf.

"Charles Beckendorf?" A smile spread across Percy's face, as Beckendorf suddenly took huge strides towards him.

"Holy shit, Percy Jackson! What the hell are you doing here?" Beckendorf's loud voice boomed as he and Percy embraced in a man hug. This was a strong, friendly hug. After a few seconds they parted and looked each other up and down.

"Damn man," Beckendorf said, "how long's it been?"

"Nearly ten years." Percy replied. Beckendorf had changed a lot over the years. He had definitely hit a growth spurt, as he was now incredibly tall. Percy would've guessed he was around 6"5'. He was also incredibly well built, especially for a high school kid. If Percy didn't know him, he'd have guessed he was a pro footballer or basketballer. His dark hair was cut short, and he was dressed in quite expensive clothes. This was a very different kid from the Charles Beckendorf Percy remembered.

You see, Beckendorf had lived on the same estate as Percy, gone to the same Elementary school as Percy. He had hung out with Percy, Nico, Grover and Tyson. He had been one of Percy's best friends. There was a time when they were inseparable. But it hadn't lasted. One day, Beckendorf's mother left the estate and took Beckendorf with her. Percy had never been told why. One minute his best friend lived three doors down from him, the next he didn't. He didn't even get to say goodbye. It was a few years later Percy found out the truth. Beckendorf's father, Mark, had worked for Percy's father, and, from what Percy understood, a job he had been doing for Poseidon went wrong, and the police caught him. Instead of ratting out Percy's father, he kept his mouth shut and received a 10-year prison sentence for 1st Degree Robbery. Turns out, that was Beckendorf's mother's final straw. She moved out of the estate, divorced Mark and completely left her life behind. The last thing anyone heard was that she had remarried some millionaire businessman.

"So, yeah man, what are you doing here?" Beckendorf asked again.

"I'm the new student." Percy said, waving his arms around slightly, gesturing around him. "I love it here." He stated, the sarcasm not lost on Beckendorf as he laughed.

"It'll grow on you, trust me." He assured Percy. "So why'd you come to Goode?"

"My father suddenly decided to take an interest in my education, and decided I wouldn't fulfill my full potential at Yancy, or some B-S like that." Percy explained. Beckendorf nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, I mean no offence, but your father never seemed like the type who 'took an interest'." Percy just laughed under his breath.

"You're damn right there."

"But hey man, fathers are real assholes." Beckendorf added. "Especially where we come from." Percy thought about it, and the more he did, the more he agreed. On the estate, most of the kids were raised by their mothers, because their fathers were either absent or in jail. There were kids like Grover who never had a father. Grover had been raised by his Grandmother and Uncle, but even his Uncle was in jail for something. Percy realized he was one of the lucky ones, at least he saw his father, no matter how distant he was. But on the other hand, that meant Percy's father had no excuse for not connecting with his son.

"Speaking of fathers, yours is out soon, you gonna see him?" Percy asked Beckendorf. He saw him look away, before looking back.

"I don't know Perce, I mean, he is my dad, but I haven't been a part of that life for years. I've got a step-dad now, Leigh, he's alright I guess. I mean, he makes my mom happy, and he gave me a roof so I can't really complain." Percy nodded. Then it fully hit him; he was seeing one of his best friends for the first time in nearly 10 years. But it wasn't the Beckendorf he remembered, he was different, he was one of the rich kids now.

"So hey man, what have you been up to the last ten years?" Percy asked, laughing slightly at the ridiculousness of the time frame. Beckendorf laughed too.

"Oh, y'know, a bit of this, a bit of that." He said, grinning. "I got really into my sports, football, basketball, baseball, even soccer." That didn't surprise Percy at all. "What about you?"

"Sports? Not my thing." Percy replied.

"No, I meant in general."

"Oh, well, you remember how the older kids always acted right?" Percy asked.

"Yeah."

"Well there's your answer." Beckendorf nodded understandingly. There were few opportunities for a better future in Percy's area outside of crime, and that wasn't a particularly good option anyway

"Anyway, I was on my way to the canteen, you coming?" Beckendorf saw that they were nearly 15 minutes into lunch already.

"I don't know man, I don't really know anyone-" Beckendorf cut him off.

"You know me though, you can sit with me and my friends, they're cool."

"I really don't want to intrude on anything." The idea of eating lunch with a load of rich spoiled kids didn't entice Percy, even if Beckendorf would be there. But he could also see that Beckendorf was not prepared to take no for an answer.

"Percy. You're coming with me." He said, matter-of-factly. "C'mon, try and make some friends, you need to." He said, pulling Percy's arm.

Percy stopped him, stood his ground.

"I have friends already." He said, his voice flat. He stared at Beckendorf, who returned the stare. He had friends already, friends who he liked, friends who understood him. He didn't need anyone to tell him he should make more. Why would he want to make friends at this school anyway? Surely all the kids looked down on him, they'd just mock him. Not for the first time today, he realized he really didn't belong in this school. He felt like a fish out of water. Percy knew Beckendorf hadn't meant anything by it, but part of Percy was still doubtful. This kid made no attempt to talk to him in 10 years, why should they hang out now like they were still best friends?

"I know…" He said, breaking the awkward silence that had engulfed them. "I'm sorry. Look, I know we can't just immediately go back to being best friends again, but we can try right?" He sounded sincere.

"Yeah, I guess." Percy said, gruffly.

"Ok, well then will you please come and have lunch with me and my friends? I'm asking you." Percy pondered it for a minute, before nodding.

"Alright, good," a small smile crept onto Beckendorf's face, "ok, follow me. Canteen's this way."

They walked to the canteen in silence. As they got closer, the noise grew louder. The canteen itself was packed. Kids queuing for bad school food while holding plastic trays, some were sitting at tables chatting with each other. There was a certain atmosphere that was always present in a school canteen. Different social groups and circles sat with each other, usually at the same table every day. It was the center of everything in school. The place where all students went, where stories and gossip were exchanged, where people really could feel like part of a student body. Percy hated it. It merely reminded him of how he didn't fit in here.

Beckendorf parted the crowds, and looked over to a table in the far corner, where a group of athletic looking boys were sitting, along with some attractive looking girls.

"Hey guys!" Beckendorf called over. Percy tentatively followed. He felt very uncomfortable.

"Where the hell have you been?" A blonde boy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This is the new kid, Percy." He said, pointing at me. "He's actually an old friend of mine. D'you mind if he sits with us?"

Percy didn't hear any complaints, so he took that as a yes. Before he sat down, he quickly looked over the group. He saw the blonde boy, twins, a punk style girl, a red head, then suddenly he saw a blonde girl. He recognized her before she turned to face him. He made contact with those stormy grey eyes, and saw the small smile once again playing on her lips. The second time he had seen that look today.

Annabeth.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you're enjoying it so far. Percabeth will come, but I do want to build up characters and story first, not just rush straight in. **

**Also, I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**


	4. Chapter 4

-Annabeth-

Maths had been one of the most interesting lessons Annabeth had ever been in. Usually, Mrs. Dodds conducted her lessons in complete and utter silence. She'd occasionally single out a student, but they never, ever talked back to her. That was, until today.

Percy Jackson.

Annabeth couldn't put her finger on it; there was just something about him. She'd heard it in the way he'd talked to Mrs. Dodds. He hadn't taken any shit from her. Annabeth had been as shocked as Mrs. Dodds herself with Percy's reply. Every student took shit from Mrs. Dodds. She had managed to make every student in Goode angry or scared or intimidated at one point or another. Well, every student except Annabeth, and that was mainly due to the fact that she never gave Mrs. Dodds the chance. She always had the right answer, just in case a difficult question was thrown her way. It was simply strategy. Mrs. Dodds picked on students who answered questions incorrectly, so if Annabeth never got a question wrong, Mrs. Dodds never had a reason to bully her. That was, after all, why she chose Percy. He didn't have the answer. Of course, no one expected him to take what Mrs. Dodds threw at him and spit it back in her face.

And it had been amazing.

Annabeth had loved every minute, every second, every detail. She couldn't help it. Underneath her good girl façade, she worshipped chaos, disorder. In her honest opinion, there was no better way to start her school year. This Percy Jackson had given her the biggest surprise, Annabeth almost wanted to thank him. It was like an early Christmas present.

While everyone in the class had looked down, not wanting to make eye contact, Annabeth chose to hold her head up. The look on Mrs. Dodds face had been priceless. She wanted to freeze-frame that second, take a photo and have it framed on her wall. The utter disbelief, the shock of the whole situation. Annabeth silently wondered when the last time Mrs. Dodds had a student talk back to her was. She was so used to everyone doing what she said, she was so used to having order, and Percy Jackson had taken order away from her for a moment. For a split second, Mrs. Dodds world was flipped upside-down. It was perfection, and it was all thanks to the boy with the sea green eyes.

And of course, she had shared that look with him afterwards. That long, lingering look. She saw something in those sea green eyes, eyes that looked like they had seen far too much for a boy of 17. The smile that played across her face was a friendly one. As if to say, 'Hey Percy, I'm gonna go break some rules, wanna join me?' The smile he responded with was affirmation. Well, Annabeth chose to see it that way. They had connected, on some small level, they had made a connection, she was sure of that. A complete conversation, unspoken.

Honestly, he intrigued her no end. Who was this boy? There was an element of mystery about him. He didn't seem like any of the boys at this school. No, they were all boring, dreary, repetitive. All they cared about was the school sports team, or the school music events, or what happened in the game yesterday. They all came to school and performed the same routine, everyday, month after month, year after year. They'd go to lessons, eat lunch, talk about pointless things that meant nothing to them but allowed them to participate in small talk, because God knows, small talk was better than facing problems, problems half of them didn't even know they had. Then, they'd go home, only to repeat it all again the next day. Not that Annabeth thought that the girls were any better. They had the same routine, just with different small talk topics. Her friends were no exception. She loved them all, but she knew that they were part of this repetitive routine. She also knew that she was a part of it too; the difference was that she acknowledged that there was something to begin with. However, that didn't mean she wasn't in danger of falling into it. Annabeth felt like everyone in this school was slowly dying and they didn't even realize it. Well, technically, everyone's dying, but now wasn't the time to get philosophical. Annabeth had become bored with life. Some psychiatrists would probably call it 'Rich Girl Syndrome', or something along those lines, but Annabeth knew it was more than that. It wasn't as if Annabeth wasn't grateful that she was part of a wealthy family, and she was by no means bored of money. She simply realized no amount of money could give her what she now knew she needed, an escape from this monotonous routine she called daily life. But maybe Percy Jackson could.

She had to get to know him, had to find an excuse, any excuse to talk to him. She would come up with a plan, she always did. Strategy.

She had ignored him completely throughout their History class. It wasn't that she didn't feel the urge to look at him, she definitely did, but she didn't want to have him ruin her concentration. She could practically hear her mother's voice echoing in her brain.

"_Work hard. You call this working hard? You can always work harder. You aren't fulfilling your potential Annabeth."_

Annabeth half expected working harder to silence the nagging echo, but it only seemed to ring louder through her ears. She wished her mother saw her like this, the confident Annabeth who would not give up until the task was completed instead of the insecure Annabeth at home, craving her mother's approval and love. She carried on working hard through her next two lessons, which were Percy Jackson free. She was thankful for that, she didn't need any distractions. One look in his sea green eyes sent her brain into overdrive. Annabeth prided herself on being able to read people damn well. In fairness most people at Goode were fairly easy to read, but Percy Jackson was not. He was, to quote Churchill, 'A Riddle, wrapped in a Mystery, inside an Enigma'. That look they had shared was worth a thousand words and no words at all, both at the same time. Looking into his eyes, she felt like she could tell what he was thinking, what he was feeling. She felt like she could find out everything there was to know about him, but at the same time, it felt like she was only seeing what he was letting her see. That he too wore a façade, and it was one that was better than hers, because it felt like his eyes gazed beyond hers, into who she was. The Good Girl mask she wore in front of teachers did not fool him, but the mask she wore around her peers did not fool him either. The mask that let everyone know she was better than them; that she was in charge. And honestly, Percy Jackson being able to see through both her masks terrified her, excited her, and intrigued her all at once. Then again, she pondered, maybe it was all in her head. Maybe, this Percy Jackson was an idiot, and his little altercation with Mrs. Dodds was proof of that. Maybe Annabeth had imagined everything else. She hoped that was true, but at the same time, she really hoped it wasn't.

* * *

The Lunch bell couldn't ring soon enough. Annabeth walked from her English class to the canteen with Luke, Thalia and Silena. She had Luke's arm around her as the other two chatted away. She could feel Luke's hand as he gripped her hip ever so slightly.

Annabeth loved the attention she got from Luke. He was one of the most popular boys in the year, Quarterback for the school football team and good looking to boot. It was another point of pride for Annabeth that he chose her to be his girlfriend; he could probably get most girls in their year. But, then again, why wouldn't he choose Annabeth? She was undeniably attractive, and had the popularity level that shallow people like Luke looked for in girls. Don't be mistaken, Annabeth didn't think Luke was a horrible person or anything; she just knew he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. He made up for his lack of wits in other areas though, and Annabeth was happy to indulge him in those areas too.

Besides, she would be a hypocrite if she called out Luke on his reasons for being with her, because she was not with him because she had strong feelings for him. On the contrary. She had used Luke to cement her place as the Queen Bee at Goode. She used her relationship with him to show others that she could get the school Quarterback to follow her around like a puppy dog. There were very little emotions in her relationship with Luke; that was why they worked. Although she wasn't quite sure Luke understood that all too well.

But as he pulled her slightly closer to his side, Annabeth was pulled out of her thoughts by the ever-inquisitive Thalia Grace.

"So Annie, what's this I hear about the new kid and Mrs. Dodds? You two were in that class, right?" gesturing to Silena too. Annabeth knew that the news would spread fast; after all, it was once every blue moon that Mrs. Dodds had a student argue back. Percy Jackson was already a Goode High School celebrity and he hadn't even been here a day.

"Yeah, it was pretty unbelievable. I mean, she just froze. She looked like someone had just slapped her across the face with a wet fish." She told the group before adding added "Twice." Just for emphasis. She described exactly what happened in that classroom this morning, with occasional input from Silena. Annabeth always had a talent for telling stories.

"Man, I wish I could've seen it." Luke said absentmindedly. "She made 10th Grade hell for me, just because I didn't get stupid Pythagoras Theorem."

"Luke, babe, Pythagoras Theorem is like, 7th Grade…" Annabeth pointed out, laughing slightly. Luke playfully shoved her.

"Shut up ok, I don't get Maths. My talents lie elsewhere." He nudged her as he said that last part suggestively.

"They certainly do." Annabeth had to agree with him as she leaned in for a kiss.

"Guys come on, PSA to a minimum please." Annabeth pulled away from Luke to give Thalia a cheeky smile.

They reached the canteen and sat down at the table they had always sat at, for the past three years, and within a minute, Rachel, Piper and Katie had joined them as well as Luke's friends, the Stoll twins Connor and Travis, Michael Yew and Jason Grace, Thalia's younger brother. While it was very unusual for someone to have a younger sibling in the same Grade as them, Thalia and Jason were born nearly a year apart, Thalia early October and Jason late August. As Annabeth looked around from her usual seat next to Luke, she realized one member of their group was missing. Apparently the others had too.

"Hey, where's Beckendorf?" Michael Yew asked. Everyone seemed to look at Silena, as if she should know. Yes he was her boyfriend, but that didn't mean she automatically knew where he was.

"Hey, don't look at me, I have no idea." She responded to all the looks.

"Well what lesson did he just have?" Luke asked her.

"I don't know do I, am I supposed to keep tabs on him 24/7?" Silena sounded slightly annoyed now. Annabeth was quick to stop this becoming anything.

"Luke, she doesn't know. Ok? He'll be here, he's probably just talking to a teacher or the basketball coach or something." Everyone nodded in agreement. When Annabeth wanted them to stop arguing, they did. It was quiet remarkable, as if she had waved a magic wand. Annabeth loved her friends, but they weren't too difficult to control if she needed to.

"Speaking of sports," Connor Stoll spoke up, causing Annabeth to sigh mentally, these boys really didn't talk about much else, "I talked to Coach Hedge, and turns out Jake Mason is out of the team till at least next calendar year."

"What?!" Luke demanded. Annabeth knew how much Luke's precious football team meant to him.

"Yeah, turns out that he had a skiing accident on holiday and broke his leg pretty bad. I heard it's broken in about three different places."

"Shit. Stupid asshole." Luke uttered, sparing no thought for Jake Mason and the well being of his apparently mangled leg.

"But it gets worse." Travis Stoll added. Luke's eyes looked dangerous, like he was about to hit someone. Annabeth had seen this side to him before; Luke was always one to show off his masculinity and strength any chance he could. He wasn't against pinning someone against the wall, or throwing mindless threats at them. Honestly though, it got boring. Luke was all talk and no walk. Annabeth was sure that if he were ever in a real fight, he would be more focused on trying to talk his way out of it.

"How does it get worse?" Luke asked, his voice low.

"Well, Lee Fletcher's also not on the team anymore. His parents aren't letting him play until he gets his grades up, but honestly, the way he told us, I don't think he's gonna be back on the team at all this year." Travis said it all, also sounding frustrated. Annabeth could sympathize with Lee on this; his parents probably expected more of him too. She was also wondering why this was a serious problem for Luke. Didn't they have back ups in each position?

"So you're telling me," Luke said, as if trying to work out the situation, "that we're about to go into the new season, without any Cornerbacks?"

Oh, that made a bit more sense. Annabeth appreciated the unfortunate circumstance of both the people who played a position having to leave. She knew Luke would be angry about it, and that that would put a downer on the mood, so she decided to change the subject, back to the incident in Maths this morning. It seemed an appropriate topic.

"You all heard about the new kid and Mrs. Dodds right?" she asked, talking to the people who hadn't been in the class.

"Yeah, that sounded crazy." Piper exclaimed. "What was he thinking?"

"He was probably thinking he was the new kid and he had to make an impression on his first day." Jason stated. The others nodded, agreeing, but Annabeth wasn't so sure. The whole thing can't have just been to make an impression, surely. It seemed like he really didn't care what anyone else thought.

"Yeah, didn't he say he was from Yancy?" Rachel pointed out. "They probably do stuff like that all the time at that school."

"Jesus, why is the school letting a Yancy kid in here?" Luke butted in. Everyone knew about Yancy High School, one of the worst schools, not just in New York City, but in the state. No one replied, because no one knew. Goode High was very particular about who they let in, and it was never kids below a certain standard of living, as unfair as that may be. That was what made Percy Jackson all the more interesting to Annabeth. She was still trying to formulate a plan in her head, one that would allow her to talk to him, find out about him, allow her to see if he was the person who could help her. Of course, she was Annabeth Chase, she could just walk up and talk to him, but he would probably see right through her, or may not want to talk to her. This was going to be tricky.

Just then, they all heard Beckendorf's booming voice.

"Hey guys!" They all turned to see Beckendorf walking towards them, behind him, a boy with raven black hair and sea green eyes following him. So much for needing a plan.

"Where the hell have you been?" Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This is the new kid, Percy." He said, gesturing to the boy behind him. Of course, Annabeth already knew who he was. "He's actually an old friend of mine. D'you mind if he sits with us?" Annabeth silently thanked Beckendorf; he had just made her plan a whole lot easier. He had unknowingly delivered him to her.

Percy Jackson.

* * *

She hid her glee as Percy sat down, on the seat at the very end of the table. Beckendorf had told him everyone's names and now they were all looking at him, as if expecting him to burst into flames, or do cartwheels through a hoop, like he was a circus animal. They chose to ignore the last point Luke had made. An awkward silence enveloped the group. Percy was moving his eyes around the table; he looked very uncomfortable, as if he wanted to leave. Right now, he looked a million miles from the confident boy who had told Mrs. Dodds where to stick it earlier. Beckendorf broke the awkward silence, from his seat next to Silena.

"So how were all your holidays guys?" People muttered replies of 'Good', 'Fine', 'Interesting', before all turning their attention back to Percy. Then he looked at everyone around the table, his eyes meeting with Annabeth's for a second before he looked away, and sighed.

"I am here you know." He said, frustration clear in his voice. At that, everyone awkwardly averted their glances to their feet, or the ceiling, or something other than the boy at the end of the table. Then he started whispering with Beckendorf under his breath, not loud enough for Annabeth to hear, although it looked like Beckendorf was trying to persuade him to stay. Annabeth was not about to let him just leave. No, she had to take matters into her own hands.

"So Percy," she said loudly, breaking up his and Beckendorf's whispering, "Beckendorf said you were old friends?" He turned his eyes towards her. She smiled innocently.

"Yeah." He sighed. Annabeth raised her eyebrows, indicating she wanted him to elaborate. The message seemed to be received, as he continued.

"He and I used to live in the same area of town, we hung out most days. Then, one day his mom just left, and took him with her. I never knew where he was, turns out it was here." The group looked around at each other. No one knew much about Charles Beckendorf, so this was a surprise. Beckendorf himself looked down, as if embarrassed.

"And you're from Yancy right? What's it like there?" Annabeth was determined to keep him here, but that required the others help too.

"Shit." Percy replied, laughing. "Really shit, why? You thinking of going there?" He was being sarcastic, that was a good sign.

She was ready to come up with a witty reply, but Luke apparently beat her to the punch.

"Is picking fights with teachers common there?" He asked, grinning. Percy leaned back, smiling. He had to have known that this would come up at some point; it was, after all, the talk of the town.

"Yeah, yeah, they don't get pissed off easily at Yancy though, so you really have to work hard at it." He seemed to be having fun. "Your teachers here, one word and they start sulking." At that everyone laughed.

"Well man, I have to say, taking on Mrs. Dodds? That's brave." Connor Stoll spoke up.

"You have no idea how long all of us have waited for that woman to get a taste of her own medicine." Jason added.

"Not just us. Everyone in the school." Katie pointed out. She wasn't wrong either.

Percy seemed to take all this in, and just shrugged.

"Look, I had no idea that she was the 'most feared teacher in school'. All I knew was that she was trying to show me up in front of everyone and I wasn't going to stand for it. Honestly, what I said wasn't even that offensive." He acted like it was no big deal, like it was just a normal school day for him.

"But dude, seriously, you have no idea what that woman is like." Luke told him, "She's probably out planning her revenge as we speak." It wouldn't have surprised Annabeth if that were the case.

"Ok, as scary as that sounds," Percy replied sarcastically, "I've dealt with tougher teachers than Mrs. Dodds. You know, I've made teachers cry, scream, have nervous breakdowns, and this one time, me and my cousin Nico made this Chemistry teacher quit her job." He listed all of the things off on his fingers, looking proud as he did it. Luke looked at him in disbelief.

"How?" Everyone on the table was suddenly interested in finding this out.

"Well, I won't bore you with the details, but long story short, we set her desk on fire." Even Annabeth's eyes widened at that.

"You what?!"

"Set her desk on fire." He said it again, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do. "Burned all of her books and test papers too." He added.

"They didn't expel you?" Thalia asked in disbelief.

"No, they could never prove it was us." He grinned.

"You and who did that again?" Beckendorf asked.

"Nico. He's become a sick son of a bitch though." Beckendorf nodded, Annabeth realized he probably knew this Nico too. "But hey, he's family right?"

Everyone sat still for a moment, taking in what Percy had just told them. Only one question was in Annabeth's head though, but now was not the time to ask it. She would wait.

* * *

For the rest of lunch, the gang questioned Percy. He answered most of the questions, steering away from ones that were more personal. Though he seemed more comfortable than he had been at the start of lunch, Annabeth knew that this little lunchtime didn't automatically make them friends, but she did notice that every so often, while in the middle of telling the group about one of his escapades, he would throw a glace her way. Not obvious glances, Luke was right next to her after all, but a glance nonetheless.

In no time, Lunch had ended, and everyone went off to their respective classes. Percy had Biology with Beckendorf, Jason, Piper and Michael, while Annabeth had music. As she made her way to her music lesson, she thought about the lunchtime they had just had, and the fact that Percy Jackson had been present. It made her sure about him, how he could be the one to help bring some excitement into her life. The thing that kept playing over in her mind was his story about setting the Chemistry teacher's desk on fire. That should scare her, shock her. She should look at him in complete disgust, but she didn't. It actually satisfied her, excited her, some deep dark part of her. She tried to imagine the look of horror on the teacher's face, the image of the desk of fire implanted in her brain. It must've been glorious. She wasn't sure if she herself could do it, but she could appreciate the act. The bravery it must've taken, the confidence to know that he wouldn't be caught, and the nonchalant way that he'd described the act. She almost admired him for it. There was something Annabeth found undeniably sexy about it all. Was that wrong? Then of course, she remembered it had led to a woman quitting her job, a woman losing her livelihood. She pushed all those thoughts back. She couldn't afford to get distracted in class.

After Music, Annabeth made her way to her final lesson of the day, Psychology.

As she walked through the door, and looked around the class she spotted Percy Jackson, sitting at the back, the third class today they had shared. Then she noticed the empty seat next to him, and felt the urge to sit there, next to him. But she fought the urge, as she knew he would only be a distraction for her. He had just noticed her, as their eyes met, that familiar smile appeared on his lips. She smiled back, before sitting down, right at the front of the class. Within a minute, Dr. Thorn, had walked in. Dr. Thorn was one of the best teachers in the school, but also one of the strictest. While he had never had a Mrs. Dodds style approach to teaching, it wouldn't surprise Annabeth to find out that he was secretly a serial killer outside of school. His slicked back grey hair, hawkish features and heterochromatic eyes, one brown and one blue, gave him the appearance of a Bond villain. Annabeth did always like his lessons.

"Textbooks out." His voice dripped with authority. Annabeth put her head down and began to work.

As the lesson ended, thus meaning the school day was also over, she turned, expecting to see Percy behind her, but he was gone. She looked around, slightly confused, when she saw him deep in conversation with Dr. Thorn. She left the classroom, wondering what they were talking about, not that it was any of her business. But that was Annabeth, always curious. She decided to wait outside the door for Percy; she didn't think he'd mind. A part if her said it was stupid, foolish, but another part of her knew that this would be the first time they would be alone together.

About five minutes later, Percy emerged. He noticed Annabeth, then looked around, presumably for the others. When he realized it was just her, he approached.

"You not walking home?" He asked.

"No, I drove here." He rolled his eyes slightly

"And do you intend on going home, or are you just gonna stand there until tomorrow?" He was smiling now.

"Absolutely not. Let's walk." He nodded in agreement.

They walked down the hallway in silence, a comfortable silence mind, but still silence. Annabeth felt like she should talk first, after all, she had waited for him.

"So how was your first day here?" A little boring, but at least she was trying right? He laughed under his breath.

"Definitely interesting."

"Dr. Thorn is something, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Percy agreed. "I think even I'd think twice before messing with him." Annabeth knew what he meant. Dr. Thorn could make Mrs. Dodds look like a docile house cat if he really wanted to. They carried on walking, all the time, never really looking at eachother.

The silence reappeared. She was desperate to know more about him, but she was lost for words, she had no idea what to say. Annabeth Chase always had something to say, but right now, she felt silly. Before she knew it, she reached her car. She looked at Percy.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said, to which he nodded slowly. He turned to walk off, and she knew she would lose her opportunity.

"Percy!" She called after him. He turned to her, their eyes meeting for what felt like the umpteenth time today. She had to ask him the question she hadn't asked earlier, around the others. This was her best chance.

"The Chemistry teacher, whose desk you burnt," He nodded, "why'd you do it? Y'know, set fire to the desk? I mean, why d'you really do it?

She wasn't sure what she expected him to say. Maybe 'She failed me' or 'She insulted me'. But his reply was exactly what Annabeth wanted to hear.

"Because I could."

This was going to be fun.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was a bit longer than the last ones. **

**Should I change the rating from T to M? I'm unsure. It will probably be changed to M later anyway, but should I keep it as T for now? **


	5. Chapter 5

-Percy-

Percy Jackson just wanted to get home. The walk between his estate and Goode was maybe a 30-minute walk, but he managed it in about 15. Today had been without a doubt, one of the weirdest days of Percy's life. On the walk home he thought more and more about the events of the school day.

The most prominent thing on his mind was the feeling he had had throughout it. The feeling of not belonging. It was an unusual feeling for Percy to be experiencing. At Yancy, he had been surrounded by people like himself, people from broken homes, people who had either been abandoned or neglected in some way. As bad a school as Yancy had been, Percy had felt like a part of a community there. He didn't feel like that at Goode, not in the slightest. Sure, he could give it time, but Percy wasn't dumb, he knew that someone like him didn't fit in at a place like Goode High School. At least he still had a feeling of community when he was at home. The estate, which was officially called the Olympus Estate, was the only place where Percy felt comfortable now. There, he had people he loved around him, people that he cared about and got along with and had a good time with. But how long before that feeling began to deteriorate? He was now going to be seeing less and less of his friends; he began to wonder if he would become completely isolated from them. Would they do that to him? No. No, Percy was sure that his friends would not, for lack of a better word, abandon him.

Then he thought about the people he had met at Goode. Seeing Beckendorf had been a pleasant surprise, but there had been awkwardness. After all, they hadn't spoken in nearly ten years. And no one is the same person after ten years. Beckendorf was one of the rich kids now, one of the kids who looked down on people like Percy. Ok, that was unfair, Percy knew Beckendorf didn't 'look down' on him, he knew how Percy lived, and understood the situation well because he too had lived that situation. He had just gotten an out from it. But while Percy understood that, he doubted some of the gang would when they found out. He did contemplate not telling them about Beckendorf, but he quickly scratched that thought. Nico and the others had been friends with him too; they had a right to know. Also, Percy had always been completely honest with Nico, Tyson and Grover. He wasn't gonna change that now, was he? No. He may go to a different school now but he wasn't a different person.

His mind wandered to the others, Luke and Michael, Thalia and Silena. All of them, as well as the others, had acted nice enough to him, but he wasn't fooled. They didn't view him as a friend, or even as an equal. No, they saw him as a distraction, as a funny guy with funny stories. Well, Percy was perfectly happy to indulge them. He had told them some of the most fucked up things he and his friends had done. He told them about the time Tyson held down a kid from a rival local gang while he and Nico took turns punching him in the gut. He even added the fact that the kid had broken a rib, just to see if they all looked horrified. While he had seen some shocked faces, he didn't see any looks of disgust or horror. In fact, he had briefly looked at Luke and saw an excitement in his eyes, as if he was imagining doing that himself. Percy could tell immediately that this pretty boy football player had never been in a real fight. A proper fight, where your own well being and more was on the line. A fight that left you with scars that would never fully heal, a fight that made it painful to move for days. Percy laughed to himself; he had been raised on fights like that. The look in Luke's eye when Percy told him about the broken rib had been pure fantasy. Of course, Percy did leave out a bit of the truth. The boy had in fact broken 5 ribs, and Percy and Nico didn't stop until the boy was coughing up blood. He wasn't too proud of that particular moment, but he also knew that times like that came with the life he lived. The boy had been fine in the end, they'd just taken it a little too far that one time.

Of course, he had also told them about the incident with Miss. Kerr and the flaming desk. That was actually something Percy didn't feel so guilty about, despite the fact he knew that he should. As he looked back, he realized that he hadn't really had too big an issue with Miss Kerr. Sure, she hadn't been the nicest woman in the world, but she was hardly the worst teacher in Yancy. But Nico had hated her. He never really asked why, he just agreed to help Nico out when he asked. He remembered the day…

* * *

_Percy looked up from the switchblade he was playing with in his hand to see Nico walking towards him. Percy could see it in his eyes; he knew that Nico was thinking malicious thoughts. That was becoming the case more and more frequently nowadays. _

"_Perce, I gotta ask you something." Nico sounded angry, yet calm._

"_Ask away."_

_Well ok, that bitch Kerr, I got a plan for her. I'm gonna mess up her life, scare the shit outa her, and make her fuck off back to whatever fuckin' stuck up town she comes from, but I need help. You in?" Nico gave Percy an expectant look. _

_Percy sighed. He knew whatever Nico had planned was not going to be pretty. For the past few months, he had made it his mission to piss off Miss Kerr every opportunity he got. Percy contemplated his request for a minute; he really didn't need the stress of getting involved in Nico's little revenge plan. But Nico was family, and Percy stuck by his family, no matter what. He looked back at Nico and gave him the answer Nico always he would get._

"_Yeah." He wasn't scared or worried, he was more curious as to what Nico had up his sleeve this time. _

"_Alright, this is good. Ok, well basically, every Lunch, Miss Kerr leaves her class for like 5 minutes to go get lunch. That means, we got a five-minute window, but it shouldn't even take that long." Percy could see the thrill in Nico's eyes, he really was having fun. Percy couldn't help but smile at that. _

"_And what will we be doing in that five minute window I hear you ask?" Nico then slipped his backpack off, and opened it up for Percy to see. "Look at that." He heard Nico exclaim. _

_Inside the bag, there were a couple of bottles of lighter fluid, a few lighters and cans of deodorant. Percy put two and two together._

"_What the fuck are you gonna set on fire?!" He asked. This was a shock, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt it shouldn't be. Nico had no boundaries._

"_Desk. She's gonna come back with her lunch, and see her fuckin' desk in flames. I only wish I could see her face." Percy thought about it more. _

"_Nico, they're gonna catch us. The school have cameras everywhere."_

"_Yeah, I thought that too, but get this. Turns out, those cameras are just for show. They don't fuckin' work. I found out the other day. Apparently funding was cut and that meant the cameras too, or some other bullshit. That's not important. What is is that they won't catch us." Nico looked like he'd just found buried treasure. The school's cameras didn't work. This was almost too good to believe. Percy just had to laugh at it all. _

"_So we'll meet at lunch, ok?" Nico asked. Percy nodded. He looked at his watch; they were 10 minutes late for school already. He slipped the switchblade into the back pocket of his jeans. _

"_Well we can't pull it off if we aren't in school, can we?" With that they turned and walked towards Yancy. This day had the potential to get fucked up, really quickly. _

_When Lunch finally came around, Percy met up with Nico at his locker. He was not nervous, or scared, which surprised him a bit; after all, they were about to commit arson in a public school. _

"_Ok Perce, listen. I've got Tyson watching the corridor to make sure we ain't interrupted." Nico looked excited, he was practically bursting with anticipation._

"_What if we're seen? I'm just wondering that's all."_

"_We say we was out the back with Leo, Grover and the others. They're gonna vouch for us if anyone asks. Besides, who's gonna grass on us? This is Yancy!" Nico said, as he and Percy started walking. Nico had a point. No one at Yancy ever told the teachers or the police anything, (because yes, the police had been called to Yancy a few times.) It was always the same thing, _'I didn't see nothing', 'I wasn't there', 'I wasn't really paying attention'. _Percy didn't even know why they bothered asking the kids questions. They were all either too scared to talk, or it was just their nature to not tell the authority anything. _

_They arrived at the Chemistry classroom to see Tyson standing in an empty hallway. Tyson was Percy's younger half brother. They shared the same father. Despite that though, there was very little resemblance between them. He may have been younger, but Tyson was huge, he definitely hit a growth spurt early. He had only recently turned 15, but he already towered above nearly everyone in school at around 6'6". He was also strong as a bull. He worked out a lot, and it was evident, as his huge muscles could clearly be seen under his shirt. Tyson already looked like a professional wrestler, and he was only halfway through high school. He was sort of the enforcer of their little group. He was very good at holding people down, and intimidation. Hell, the big guy intimidated Percy sometimes. The fact that he rarely talked didn't help. He nodded at Nico and Percy as they walked past him, into the Chemistry class. _

_The lights were off, the only light coming through the window. It was eerily quiet, but that was because Percy and Nico were rarely in an empty classroom. Nico didn't waste any time. He unshouldered his backpack in one fluid motion, and threw Percy a deodorant can and a lighter. He caught them both, then watched as Nico began to empty a can of lighter fuel, the stuff you use on campfires, all over the desk. He pulled open the drawers and emptied it into there too. Once one can was empty, he pulled out a second one and continued. Percy couldn't help but notice the efficiency that Leo did it with. Then, Leo noticed something in the corner of the room. He smiled sadistically._

"_Perce, pass me that will you?" Percy walked over to the bag and checked its contents. Sure enough it had everything they expected, some schoolbooks of hers, unmarked test papers. He threw the bag to Nico, who emptied it onto the table. As all the books and papers fell out, so did something else. Nico picked it up, and slowly examined it, Miss Kerr's purse. He looked inside, and pocketed the $27 she had, before taking out her driver's license. _

"_Miss Amanda Kerr. 26. Washington Driver's License." Nico read out loud, before laughing and dropping it onto the desk. "Fuck you." _

"_Alright, now for the real fun." Nico pulled out a spray can and lighter from his bag too. Percy knew what to do; he was only really surprised that he did it without hesitation. He held the lighter in front of the spray can, and pushed down. The spray of deodorant passed through the flame, causing a stream of fire to spurt from the end. He was just testing it. The whole morning, he had been wondering to himself if he would actually be able to go through with this. It was after all, arson. People could go to jail for 15 years plus for arson. But as he pushed down on the nozzle again, he knew he could, so why shouldn't he? _

_Nico was the first to attack the desk. He knew they only had about three minutes left, so Percy got to work too. They aimed the cans at the desk, and pushed down. The streams hit the table, and instantly, the desk was alight. The books and papers on top of it were burning. Percy knew it would take a minute before the actual wood of the desk caught fire, but he and Nico carried on. Nico had that same sadistic look in his eye; Percy had seen it a few times today already. He was muttering things under his breath that Percy couldn't hear. He was suddenly aware of how hot it was getting. Suddenly, there were three loud knocks on the door. They both knew what that meant; it was Tyson, telling them they had a minute to get the hell out of there. Quickly, they stopped, packed up everything into Nico's bag, and walked to the door. Nico threw the discarded lighter fuel bottles onto the burning desk. Percy knew the fire alarm would be sounding soon, but he and Nico both had one more look at their handiwork._

_The red and yellow flames licked at the air, while black smoke billowed up into the air, before it hit the ceiling, where there was a growing layer of smoke. The books on the desk were burnt to a crisp by now, with the edges curled up and black. The fire had truly engulfed the desk; it was like a beacon at the top of an old lighthouse. It was mesmerizing. He realized he had been staring too long when he felt Tyson's large hand pull he and Nico out of the doorway. They walked down the hall, looking completely inconspicuous. The biggest surprise was that the fire alarm had yet to go off. Then again, if the cameras didn't work, who's to say the fire bell didn't either. As they walked through a door at the back of the school where the rest of their friends were standing, they heard what sounded like a woman's scream, faintly, in the distance. Suddenly, the shrill notes of the fire alarm sounded around the whole school. At that Nico burst out into hysterics, which led everyone else to laugh too. Everyone except Grover, because that wasn't the type of person Grover was, and Percy, who was too wrapped up in his own thoughts. _

"_He had done it. Why? He didn't hate 26-year-old Amanda Kerr from Washington. He held no grudge towards her, but he had set fire to her desk without hesitating. Was there something wrong with him? He couldn't put this down simply to the life he had, the people he hung out with. He could've said no to Nico, or just watched Nico do it. But no, he had joined in. And the sick part was that he hadn't felt sick doing it. He hadn't enjoyed it, certainly not in the way Nico had, but he had not felt bad about doing it. He simply did it because he could, because he was able to do it._

* * *

And that had been exactly what he told Annabeth.

He didn't quite know why he had been honest with her. Maybe it was her expression, one that seemed to tell him that she needed to know. Percy had been slightly taken aback by it. She didn't seem to have the same attitude towards his heinous acts as the others did. They saw them as stories, as awkward situations Percy had ended up in, as opposed to what they really were, fucked up moments in Percy's fucked up life. They all saw him as an entertainer, and him re-telling his escapades were merely his party trick. It wouldn't surprise him if they thought what he had been all made up or exaggerated by Percy, when in fact; he had left out a lot of the detail, giving them the soft version.

But Annabeth hadn't seen it like that. While telling them, he had often quickly moved his eyes to her, to see her reaction. For the most part, there wasn't one. Where the others had been openly intrigued and somewhat shocked, Annabeth had been reserved. She never averted her gaze, but nor did she listen to them with the enthusiasm that those around her did. This made it very difficult to read her. Percy was also careful to not make his interest in Annabeth's reaction obvious. He worked out she was 'with' Luke, and even though Percy was not afraid of Luke, not in a million years would Percy be afraid of Luke, he didn't particularly want another altercation on his first day.

Then he thought back to after Psychology, that 5-minute walk between Dr. Thorn's classroom and Annabeth's Porsche. He had stayed behind to just ask Dr. Thorn some questions about their work in the class, because, much to Percy's surprise, it actually interested him.

Of that 5-minute walk, about 4 minutes consisted of silence, but when they reached Annabeth's car, and she had asked him why he had really set Miss Kerr's desk on fire, he paused. That was a question that had been asked at Lunch to which the response was along the lines of 'she was a bitch', 'needed to be brought down a peg', blah blah blah. But apparently Annabeth didn't believe that. She seemed to know, or at least have a notion, that there was more to it, maybe that's why Percy was honest with her. He considered saying 'Because it was fun' or 'Because I was bored', but she would probably see through that too. No, instead he had been one hundred percent honest with her. It shocked him a bit, after all, he had only just met her, only shared one conversation with her, and even that had been eighty percent silence. Why had he done that? Why had he been totally honest with her? He still wasn't sure.

He was broken from his thoughts when he looked up and saw the entrance to Olympus Estate. Percy sighed happily. He was home.

* * *

The walk through the estate to his small apartment was not long, but he knew that he would see someone he knew and have to stop and chat, and lo and behold, he had not made it past the first set of apartment doors when he saw Nico, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang and Will Solace. They were sitting just outside Leo's apartment, leaning against the railing opposite it. Percy stopped for a minute as they noticed him appearing.

"Well well well, look at this boys," Nico got up and began approaching him, talking in a joking manner "if it isn't the kid from that rich school where everyone thinks they're the best thing since sliced bread." He laughed before putting out the cigarette he had been smoking and wrapping Percy in a firm hug. "How was day one with the pricks?" Percy was taller than his cousin, and probably bigger in terms of muscle too, but Nico Di Angelo was not a person anyone wanted to mess with. He was tough, very quick and extremely aggressive. His father, Percy's Uncle Harry, was given the nickname Hades, jokingly, because he was Poseidon's brother, but he was also his lawyer. After leaving high school, Harry had gone off to law school, changed his surname to Harry Di Angelo, married Percy's Aunt Maria and had Nico's sister older sister Bianca. When Nico had been born, they decided to move back home to his family, to Poseidon, where Harry would represent him if need be, a bit like Tom Hagan from The Godfather, and where Nico would have a cousin his age to play with.

"Weird." Percy laughed as he greeted the others with informal handshakes. Frank was this huge Asian kid who was pretty much angry 24/7, but he was also a loyal friend, and really useful to have on your side in a fight. Will was the quiet one of the group. Tall, blonde haired and considered quite the looker, he didn't like confrontation, but that didn't mean he wasn't willing to get his hands dirty if needs be. Leo was the shortest kid here. Standing at about 5'6", Leo was that kid that most people knew growing up, the kid who liked to burn things. Percy remembered his frustration at not being in on the whole desk burning fiasco. His family had moved here form Mexico for 'a better life', like millions before them, but had instead been forced to embrace a gang culture.

"So what, they started brainwashing you yet?" Leo asked, a cigarette in his mouth too.

"Not yet, but I wouldn't put it past them."

"You pull anything?" Nico asked. He always wanted to know about the troublemaking.

"Yeah, but it was small. Seriously, these kids are never rude to the teachers. I made one little sarcastic comment and the whole school was talking about it." Percy saw Nico and the others start laughing.

"Ah man, imagine if they were at Yancy."

"Yeah, hey, how was it all today?" Percy asked. He wanted to know what was happening at Yancy, he would rather have spent his day there.

"Wouldn't know, didn't go." Nico muttered as he pulled out another cigarette, and lit it. It was becoming more common that Nico skipped school. "You want one?" he asked Percy, holding out the cigarette packet.

"Yeah, fuck it, why not." Percy took one from Nico, and then took the lighter. Percy didn't smoke often, and not nearly as often as Nico, but the fact that the smoke came out of his nose slowly showed he was experienced enough.

"Any girls at Goode?" Will Solace spoke up, he was usually the one who brought up girls. "I heard that those rich girls are always willing to go at it, if you know what I mean." He said, smirking.

"Yeah and I heard that they all get plastic surgery at like 15." Frank added. All four of them looked at Percy as he inhaled again.

"Yeah, I guess some of them were pretty hot." He told them, smoke billowing from his mouth as he talked. The others laughed.

"Well bring some of 'em back here sometime. We'll show 'em a good time." Nico said

"Y'know Percy," Leo told him, "you're probably in with a good chance with some of them. I bet they're crazy over the tough kid thing." That caused another round of laughter.

"Yeah, though I bet Calypso won't take it too well." Nico added, causing even heavier laughter. Percy just exhaled more smoke, before putting his cigarette out.

"Alright, fuck you guys," he said jokingly with a smile, "I gotta get home."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Nico said between laughs. "See you."

As Percy walked past them, he heard their laughter continue, no doubt at his expense. He didn't mind though, it was just banter between friends. They'd all been subjected to it at one point or another. It suddenly occurred to him that he had completely forgotten to tell them about Beckendorf. It seemed like a big thing to forget, but the thought had left his mind completely. Oh well, that would be a topic for another time. He walked past Grover's apartment, guessing he was inside, seeing as he hadn't been with the others. He contemplated knocking, but thought better of it. Grover's grandmother usually had chores she made him do as soon as he got back from school, and Percy didn't want to be in Grandma Underwood's bad books. As he carried on, he could eventually see his apartment door. He was about to pull out his key when he was stopped by a small voice behind him.

"You just gonna ignore me then?" The voice asked innocently. Percy smiled; he didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"No, I've just had a long day." He replied, still not turned around.

"Are you gonna look at me at all?" The voice asked again.

"Only if you say please…" He liked annoying her.

"Fine, will you _please_ turn around?" Percy obliged, and turned to face her.

'Her' was Calypso Atlas. Percy didn't quite know the best way to describe Calypso. She was like the perfect girl next door, if that girl had daddy issues and a minor drug problem, nothing hard, just marijuana and an assortment of pills. With her cinnamon hair and dark almond eyes, there was no denying her beauty, but Percy knew better than most not to be deceived by her looks. She could be cold blooded when she wanted to be. Slowly, she stepped closer to him.

"Hey." She asked, using that same innocent tone. Percy laughed under his breath.

"Hey to you too." She was face to face with him now. It was always difficult to tell whether Calypso was playing games or not.

"So… how was your day?" She looked into his eyes.

"Really? You're carrying on with the shit small talk?" He asked. A smile appeared on her lips as she looked down, before looking back up, her head tilted sideways slightly.

"No." She replied plainly, before moving her hands to the back of Percy's neck. "You in the mood to… hang out at my place?" What she meant by 'hang out' was clear to him, after all, it wouldn't be the first time they had 'hung out'.

"Calypso, there are plenty of other guys here who you've 'hung out' with before," he told her, emphasizing hung out, "why don't you find one of them?"

"They're good enough, they'll get to a base, but you're the only one who gets a home run." She eyed him seductively. Percy could smell the marijuana on her clothes. "What d'you say Percy?" He sighed, she sure did make a tempting offer, but he really wasn't in the mood.

"As tempting as that sounds, I have to decline."

"How about if I convince you?" Then, in one second, her lips met Percy's. His eyes closed, and for a second, he was lost in the moment, as their lips familiarized themselves with each others, not for the first time. But he pulled away.

"No, I can't, not today." She pouted, which made him laugh. "I'm serious."

"Oh, you're no fun." She hit him playfully on the chest, before stepping back. "You sure I can't convince you? You'll enjoy it…" It was enticing, Percy couldn't deny that, but he stuck to his guns.

"I'll take a rain check on this one." She looked at him, slightly deflated, before sighing.

"Fine, see you 'round…" She winked at him before walking back into her own apartment. Percy stood for a minute, before he made his way back to his apartment.

He wasn't quite sure how to define his relationship with Calypso. She definitely wasn't his girlfriend, but she had to be more that just a friend. Percy usually settled for 'Friends with Benefits'. When he was with Calypso, he had a good time. It was fun, easy, and it also helped that Calypso was really good at 'hanging out'. Hell, she'd been Percy's first. Not his only one, but his first nonetheless. He then thought back to Leo's 'tough kid' point earlier. He wondered if he would 'hang out' with any of the girls at Goode. His mind floated to Annabeth. He was sure they had an unspoken connection, and he did find her extremely attractive. She did of course have a boyfriend; that was usually an issue. There was also the fact that he actually barely knew her. Come to think of it, Percy didn't even know her last name. Annabeth what? He pondered all this as he took out his key and unlocked the front door.

* * *

"Mom! I'm home!" He shouted as he dropped his bag down by the door.

"In the kitchen!" The smell of spaghetti bolognese wafted through the apartment. Percy's apartment was medium sized, identical to every other apartment in the estate. They lived on the second floor of three, and the front of it faced onto a court in the middle of the estate. Their living room was connected to the kitchen, and there was a hallway that led to three more rooms: Percy's room, his mom's room and a spare. The rooms themselves were small, but it was enough. Everyone who lived around here paid rent to Percy's father. Either the regular fee, which was not extortionate anyway, or a reduced rate, but in return they'd have to work for him if he ever needed it. Not strictly legal of course, but then again, he was a gangster. Percy's father, of course, didn't live with them.

Percy walked into the kitchen, and saw his mother standing over the cooker. She turned and greeted him.

"Hi Percy, how was school?"

Sally Jackson was the kindest, friendliest, and all around best woman Percy knew. He knew the struggles she had faced in her life, and he also knew how difficult it had been raising him practically single handedly. She was just 'an unfortunate girl who the boss knocked up', but she had made a good life for herself, and tried to make one for her son. Percy was aware that she disapproved of his choices, but Sally also knew that there were very few alternatives for boys in Percy's circumstance, Percy in particular. Being the son of the boss meant there were expectations on him to be tough, to be no nonsense. So far, he had pretty much lived up to that. The expectations were another reason why Percy was surprised his dad made him change schools. Didn't his father want him to follow in his footsteps? Apparently now he didn't.

"Not bad. I think it'll take some getting used to." He told her. She smiled at him.

"Look, I know it may seem like a shock right now, not being around your friends all the time, but I promise you it'll all work out. You could really have a chance at a future outside of working for your father." She looked at him sympathetically. Percy knew she was right. Before, at Yancy, his future had just been two words. Family Business. That of course, was a clean way of saying drug dealer, armed thug, bank robber. Honestly, Percy didn't know half of what his father did for 'business', but he could make a good guess.

"Is dad around?" Percy asked. Speaking of the family business, he wanted to know if he could expect a surprise visit from his father anytime soon.

"No, he left the city for a few days, business." Percy knew what that meant; he was probably meeting a partner or someone like that, probably out in New Jersey somewhere.

"Oh, mom, you'll never guess who goes to Goode?" She raised her eyebrows. "Beckendorf. Charles Beckendorf. Remember him?" Her eyes widened in astonishment.

"Yeah, Mark and Abby's son. He's at Goode?"

"Yeah, Abby remarried some Wall Street suit."

"I did hear that. Well good for her I guess." His mother smiled, before turning back to the food. "Dinner will be ready around 6 ok?"

"Ok"

Percy made his way to his bedroom; he just wanted to lie down on his bed for a minute, just one minute. As he did, he turned off his brain. He wanted just one minute where he didn't have to think about anything, not about Goode or how out of place he felt there, or Yancy and how he wished he was still there, not about Nico or Beckendorf, not about Mrs. Dodds, not about old memories at his old school or potential memories at his new school, not about his mother or his father, and not about Annabeth. No, she had been on his mind enough for one day. He wanted one minute where he thought about nothing.

Nothing at all.

* * *

**A/N: I know this chapter was a bit more 'out there' than previous ones but I just wanted to show the kind of life Percy has. Thank You for reading it, and I really hope you're enjoying it. **


	6. Chapter 6

-Annabeth-

The radio blared away in the car as Annabeth sped down the road. At this time of day, just before the rush of people leaving their 9 to 5 jobs so that they could get home, the roads were pretty empty, particularly around Annabeth's neighborhood. Of course, her parents were not a part of that demographic. No, they were rarely home before at least 8 o'clock, and that was on a good day. In the past 5 years, Annabeth had gotten used to the absence of her parents. At times, she felt like she practically lived alone. The only company she ever had at home came from her twin brothers, Matthew and Bobby.

Matthew and Bobby Chase were the spitting image of one another. Sometimes, with twins, you could always tell one apart from the other, whether it be down to a tiny feature, their haircut or even the way they spoke and acted. That was not the case with the Chase twins. They had the same haircut, they talked in the same way, they liked the same things, they did absolutely everything together. Annabeth was their sister, and even she had times when she had to double-check who was who. She wondered if her parents ever had that problem, after all, they didn't see an awful lot of them. Annabeth had been more present in the boy's lives than their parents had. She thought about what kind of effect that would have on them. As much as she wished that her parents were around more, she did have lots of memories of them around from when she was younger. Her brothers, on the other hand, didn't. 6 years ago, when her father had received the promotion to Vice-Principal, meaning both of her parents were around even less, Annabeth had been 11, but her brothers were only 7. The majority of their memories were missing Frederick and Athena Chase. She never spoke to her brothers about it; she didn't even know if they were upset or frustrated or just plain didn't care.

Despite the fact that they shared a house, and blood, Annabeth had never felt extremely close to her brothers. Maybe it was because they were twins and had each other instead. That didn't mean she didn't love them, they were her brothers; it just meant that they didn't really spend time together. They had no private jokes that only siblings would get, they struggled to choose Christmas presents for one another. Annabeth wasn't even sure if she knew what their favourite TV show was. There were often times when Annabeth wondered if she was a bad sister. They never seemed to be upset by the fact that she kept to herself, but then again, maybe they were and just didn't know how to tell her. Her lack of a relationship with Bobby and Matthew bothered Annabeth, mainly because it was not a problem she could blame on her parents. If she wanted to connect with them, she would have to make an effort.

She often looked at Thalia and Jason with jealousy. They just connected, like siblings should. Thalia's parents didn't have a great relationship. Her father was one of New York's biggest judges, and her mother was a washed up old actress living off of the millions she made in her youth. Nowadays, she was the kind of person who appeared on celebrity game shows, and the only time she was really in the news was whenever she got another DUI. Theirs was, as far as Thalia had told Annabeth, a loveless marriage. While the Chase's marriage was not 'loveless', there were similarities to Thalia's parents, mainly the fact that they were absent when it came to their children. But while in Annabeth's case it made her isolated from her siblings, in Thalia and Jason's case, it brought them closer together. Why couldn't it be that easy for Annabeth? Maybe it was the age gap, or the twins issue. _'Maybe,'_ the dark part of her brain thought, _'you don't actually love your brothers.'_ No, it couldn't be that, they were family. She loved Bobby and Matthew. Didn't she?

'_Excuses, excuses. Running from the truth._' A voice in her head, one she recognized_._

"Shut up!" Annabeth muttered under her breath. She quickly pulled over to the side of the road to regain her composure; it was dangerous to drive like this. She hated being confused, insecure. She did an excellent job of hiding it around people, but as soon as she was alone, with just her thoughts, her brain went wild. She would question herself, doubt herself, scare herself and punish herself and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It scared her because it showed her all aspects of her personality. The insecurity, the self doubt, the pressure put on her, it would come out all guns blazing. The voice in her head would tell her it knew she was living a lie. She felt like shouting back at it.

"I know who I am!"

"I know what I am!"

But the voice would reply, always.

'_So do I Annabeth. I know you better than you want to admit.'_

That same voice, always there, always in the back of her mind. Whenever she had a moment of doubt, a moment of worry, a moment of weakness, there it was, ready to pounce, ready to twist the thorn in her side. She wanted to scream at it.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"

The same reply, always.

'_Annabeth, I am you. I exist only in your head.' _

"GO AWAY!"

'_Isn't this what you want? You said it yourself, you worship chaos.'_

Annabeth was breathing heavily, trying to get it to stop. It was right; she loved chaos. But this was different, this was real chaos. Her mind was in complete disorder. She had to rein it in, and fast. The voice was usually her voice, but it had been known to be her mother's from time to time. Only today, it was neither. It had a deeper sound, a rougher, slightly more sympathetic sound to it. Whenever it was Athena's voice, it was cold and harsh but today was different, the voice belonged to another. She knew she recognized it too, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Her thoughts were broken by a tapping on her window. She turned her head so quickly, that the woman who had tapped jumped back a bit with surprise. Annabeth wound down her window.

"You alright in there honey?" The woman asked politely. She had an expensive blue tracksuit on and a poodle on a leash. She must've been about 60.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Annabeth asked. It came across as quite snappy.

"Well… You looked pretty distressed sitting there. Look, you're shaking" she pointed out. Annabeth hadn't noticed it until now, but her hands were a quivering mess. She took another deep breath.

"I'm fine, really. Thank you though."

"Alright, take care now." The woman wagged her finger before walking off with her dog. Annabeth sat there for one more minute, before taking off. She was only two minutes away from her house.

She thought back to her little meltdown. They had been happening more and more over the last year. Telling the school counselor had crossed her mind, and she even thought about going to see a psychiatrist, but she didn't want to have to explain to her parents why she felt it would help her. The voice was gone for now. Annabeth had no doubt it would be back, but for now, she was fine. She still couldn't put her finger on whose voice it had been today, and that concerned her. She knew it from somewhere.

* * *

As she pulled into the empty driveway of the three-floor house, Annabeth heard her phone buzz in her pocket. She quickly turned off the radio and checked it. A message from Luke popped up on her lock screen. She groaned inwardly; she wasn't in the mood for talking to Luke right now. She had to get in and do her Psychology and Physics homework, as well as piano practice. She didn't want any excuse to have to face her mother's disapproving glare. That always seemed like the reason for Annabeth's hard working attitude, 'I don't want to annoy mom'. What kind of life was it where she was constantly wondering how she could get her mother to pay attention to her? A mother shouldn't make her child feel like this, surely? Annabeth immediately pushed those thoughts away. Looking back down at her phone, that message from Luke still there, waiting for her to slide it to the right so she could see it. She shoved it back into her pocket. She would check it later.

The house key clicked as it turned in the lock, and Annabeth tentatively stepped inside.

"Hello?" she called. No reply. Sometimes her brothers would get home before her, but she usually beat the school bus. She estimated that there were maybe five minutes before she had company. She put her school bag at the bottom of the staircase and walked into the kitchen, where only this morning her mother had informed her she needed to work 'harder than ever before'. Annabeth snorted; that would be damn difficult to do. Her mother seemed to be the only person in the world who _didn't_ know how hard Annabeth worked. As her eyes moved across the kitchen, she spotted the cabinet where the alcohol was kept. Annabeth wasn't the heaviest drinker in the world, but she did like to let loose every now and then. She heard her feet on the tiled floor as her legs moved her to the cabinet on the other side of the room. It was a bad idea, but also a tempting one. Annabeth did need to relax; her last half hour had been very stressful. Her hands went to the cabinet doors.

'Stop it Annabeth!' she thought to herself.

'_Relax, just a bit.'_ That damn voice again. This time it was like the devil on her left shoulder, tempting her, while the angel on the right pleaded.

The cabinet contained some very old, expensive whiskey, as well as bourbon and a bottle of vodka. Her hand rested on the vodka bottle.

'Stop it!' the angel pleaded.

'_Just one shot, mom and dad will never notice'_. Annabeth's parents didn't like her drinking at all. She was occasionally allowed small amounts of wine, but even then that was only because it was a special occasion and they had a small cellar full of the stuff. Besides, she didn't care much for wine. Now vodka on the other hand, that was more to Annabeth's taste. Her resting hand was still placed on the bottle. It was cool to the touch.

'You have school work to do, forget this.'

'_No, that's no fun. Have some fun.'_

The angel and devil were getting louder and louder. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, the front door slamming shut.

"Annabeth? You in?" Bobby called from the lobby.

The cabinet door slammed shut too. She quickly composed herself; the last thing she wanted was her brothers finding her like that.

"Yeah," she called back, "in the kitchen."

The twins stuck their heads round the door, smiling mischievously, before making their way in. Matthew went straight to the fridge, while Bobby sat on the chair around the counter in the middle of the room.

"Your first day back as shit as ours?" he asked her, still grinning.

"Don't swear." Annabeth warned them.

"Why not?" Bobby responded, faking offense.

"Because you're only 13, and if mom or dad hears you swear, I'll get blamed." She looked at him sternly, before cracking a smile. "Hey, that goes for you too Matthew." She wagged he finger at him, still smiling.

"I didn't even say anything." Matthew closed the fridge, and put the milk on the counter. He pulled out a bowl and some cereal.

"Are you eating cereal?" Annabeth asked in disbelief, as if the concept of eating cereal mid-afternoon was completely alien to her. Matthew poured the contents of the box into the bowl.

"Yeah, there's never a bad time to have some cereal." He said it with such conviction, as if he based his entire life and morals on that one message. Annabeth just laughed. She knew that this would probably be the only interaction she had with her brothers for the rest of the evening, so she was going to try to make the most of it.

"Tell me, how was school today?" She asked them. This was good right? She was making an effort?

"Man, it was not good." Matthew spoke up.

"Yeah," Bobby agreed, "I for one am gonna hate 8th grade." That made Annabeth laugh.

"You think 8th Grade is bad, wait till you reach 12th. What I wouldn't give to be in 8th Grade again," she said. They all laughed, but pretty soon a silence engulfed them. This was what usually happened when she talked to her brothers: a few minutes of light conversation followed by an awkward silence. It would usually last, unless of course, they brought up…

"Hey sis, when are we gonna get to see your hot friends again?"

… that. If Bobby and Matthew Chase were grateful for one thing, it was that their sister had incredibly attractive friends. Annabeth laughed to herself.

"I'm just saying, it's been nearly two months," Bobby added, a small smile on his face. Matthew was smirking too.

"Yeah, you saw them today right? How are they looking?" Matthew enquired.

"Hey man, I bet Thalia looked fine today."

"Yeah, but Silena's way hotter."

"I can see that." This carried on for another minute, Annabeth watching in amusement. Oh to be a 13-year-old boy, she thought. When they both finished their little debate on the attractiveness of her friends, Annabeth responded with a simple

"You two are gross." She gave them a look of disapproval.

"At least tell us what they were all wearing today?" Bobby asked.

"There's no way I'm answering that."

"Shit…" Bobby uttered under his breath. He meant it to be quiet, but clearly it was too loud, because Annabeth span around to face him.

"I told you, watch your language!" This time she didn't crack a smile.

"Ok, so we can't swear, but you can fuck Luke anytime you want right?" Bobby quickly responded.

The awkward silence earlier in their conversation had been nothing compared to this one. Bobby looked like he wasn't even breathing. Annabeth's grey eyes met his blue ones. They both had Frederick Chase's eyes, which had always made Annabeth a little jealous; she would've loved to have her father's eyes. They were kinder, not as harsh as her grey orbs. Right now though, she imagined her grey eyes looked quite intimidating. She didn't quite know how to respond. Did she want to shout at him? Perhaps she should use the silent strategy? Should she just let it go? This was a whole new situation for her to be in, Bobby had never said anything like that to her before. He himself looked suddenly very worried, he had no idea how his sister would react. That made the both of them. In the end, Annabeth just shook her head slowly. Bobby understood what it meant. This is your first and only warning, don't push it.

"I've got homework to do." She stated, looking at both of them. "I'll be in my room if you need me." She turned her gaze back to Bobby one last time. "Are we good?"

"Yeah. Annie I'm really sorry-" She cut him off before he could make a speech.

"It's fine, forget it."

"I know, but-"

"Bobby! It's fine," she repeated. He nodded.

Annabeth walked out of the kitchen and up the large staircase, grabbing her bag on the way up. Her room, as well as the bathroom, spare bedrooms and her brothers' bedroom, was up the first flight of stairs. If you carried on up the second flight, you'd reach her parent's room and the office. She walked into her room and threw her bag down. Then just fell onto her bed, literally. As she lay there, feeling the benefits of a memory foam mattress, she contemplated her day. It had mainly consisted of voices in her head, which she really needed to get a grip on fast, and Percy Jackson. Whenever her mind wasn't taunting her, it had been thinking about that strange boy. What was it about him? Annabeth had asked herself that a few times today, and she was yet to come up with an answer. She settled for the fact that he was new, mysterious and, from what he told them at lunchtime, quite dangerous. It was just a phase, Annabeth was sure of it. He would leave her thoughts soon enough. But hadn't she wanted him to rescue her from boredom? From the monotonous life she lived every day? Wasn't he the one who was supposed to bring some excitement into her life? That was what she had told herself today. Could she really trust herself though? After all, she did hear voices.

Suddenly she put it together. Holy Shit. The voice she heard in the car, it hadn't been her own, or her mother's, it had been Percy's. She had heard his voice call her out on her insecurities. Percy Jackson. Why was he the voice in her head? She had only just met him. Why, when she felt weak, was it Percy Jackson that she heard echoing in her head? Percy Fucking Jackson. Now more than ever, he was running through her mind. All she could see was his face, his smirk, his sea green eyes. He radiated confidence. He had a charm about him that made Annabeth crazy. Why did he have this affect on her? She had never been struck by a person like this before. Never. She shook her head; she didn't have time for this right now. She had a pile of homework that she wanted gone, and it wasn't going to just vanish into thin air. Pushing Percy Jackson from her mind, she got up from her bed, sat at her desk, and pulled her Psychology book from her bag.

* * *

7:26

That was the time on Annabeth's phone when she finally finished all her work. There were also three messages from three different people: the one from Luke she ignored earlier, one from Thalia and one from her dad. She opened the one from her father first.

**Annie, I'll be back around 9:30. Hope school went well today.**

Annabeth didn't bother replying, he would know she had gotten it. She then checked the message from Luke, the one he had sent hours ago.

**Hey, wanna meet up tonight? ;)**

She quickly typed a reply, something along the lines of no, she still had homework and she was pretty tired. The last thing she wanted right now was to meet up with Luke, especially after the day she had had. Finally, she checked Thalia's text.

**I'm bored as fuck at home. Got Silena with me. Up for hanging out?**

Just as Annabeth was about to reply with another no, she thought about it. She could do with some time with her two best friends. She might actually get to relax for the first time today. She typed a reply.

**Sounds good. You two wanna come to my place? House is free for few hours.**

Within a minute, Thalia confirmed that they'd be at Annabeth's house in about 10 minutes. Both her and Silena didn't live far away from Annabeth. She just wanted to make sure her brothers weren't around to ogle at them.

The ringing doorbell echoed through the large house. As Annabeth walked down the hallway, she thought about just how immense their house was. They had about 6 bedrooms overall, but half of them were always empty. It was very modern; Athena had had a hand in designing it herself, and had gone all out. The two spacious offices upstairs, one for each parent, took up more than half of the floor. Downstairs, there was the kitchen, and the living room, which was decorated completely with art and sculptures. The exception was the staircase, which looked like something out of a 1940's costume drama. Yes, this house was Annabeth's mother's dream, her crowning glory, her Mona Lisa. Annabeth had to admit she did love living here. However that didn't mean at times she found the whole thing very ostentatious. The place practically screamed money. Then again, so did every other house in the neighborhood.

Annabeth crossed the lobby to the front door, and opened it with a smile, seeing her two oldest friends standing in front of her. Thalia was still wearing the same punk style clothes she had on at school, while Silena had changed into a new pair of designer jeans and a pink top that showed off her features very well. Annabeth was amazed that Silena could wear anything and pull it off. Hell, she could probably wear a binbag and still look stunning.

"Annie, you gonna let us in?" Thalia asked lightly.

"No, I was thinking about leaving you on my front step." Annabeth replied sarcastically, before moving to the side to let them walk past her.

"Damn, I missed your house. I feel like I haven't been here in ages" Thalia exclaimed. She was right; it had been over two months since Annabeth had last had any friends over.

"I wish our house had the modern design to it." Silena sighed. "Mom's recently changed it all up at mine, she's gone for the whole feng shui feel. Said we need to 'harmonize with where we live'. And the house already had a minimalist style, so it's not like it wasn't weird enough before." Annabeth laughed. Silena's mother owned and ran a beauty product company, one of America's largest, but she was very eccentric. It wasn't hard to imagine her frantically changing the layout of her entire house.

"Well if you ever want to live here, just ask. We always have empty rooms," Annabeth jokingly offered, to which they laughed. She knew that they wouldn't seriously accept, but that made her feel a strange sadness. It might be nice to share a house with someone who she actually got on with well, someone who really knew her, and no one knew her better than these two girls.

They walked up the stairs to Annabeth's room, chatting about nothing important, and when they finally reached the room, Thalia jumped onto straight onto the bed, sighing.

"Your bed is so comfortable" she moaned, before sitting up. Silena sat on the foot of her bed, while Annabeth pulled up her desk chair.

"So, you never finished telling me about Italy this morning." Silena looked at her and smiled.

"I told you, nothing to tell" Annabeth replied innocently.

"That's bullshit and you know it Annabeth Chase" Thalia responded. She gave in, and spent the next 20 minutes telling them everything about Italy. The sights, the beaches, the sun and of course, what they really wanted to know, the boys. Specifically, Aldo, who Annabeth had gotten to know very well while she was there.

"So anyway, we didn't agree to like, keep in touch or anything, it was just a summer thing." She concluded.

"He sounds great, I wish I could've met him." Silena laughed.

"Silena, you have a boyfriend, remember? Beckendorf?" Thalia reminded her.

"Well yeah, I know, but so does Annabeth." Silena argued.

"Yeah, but you and Beckendorf actually like each other. Annabeth and Luke aren't like that, are you?" Thalia asked her. These two were the only people Annabeth had told about her motivation for dating Luke. It was just for popularity. She harbored very little romantic feeling towards him.

"Silena, you wouldn't cheat on Beckendorf. You love him" Annabeth assured her.

"I don't love him, ok? I just… I don't know. Maybe I do love him…" She sounded confused; like it was something she was trying to put together in her head. They had been dating for about 9 months by now. "Can we change the subject please?" Silena asked.

"Yeah sure." Thalia wrapped her arm around Silena, "how about… ooh, the new kid, Percy."

Shit. Would this boy not leave her alone? She couldn't exactly ask to change the topic, that would make her friends suspicious. Sure, they shared almost everything, but Annabeth wouldn't be comfortable sharing the fact that she heard his voice talking to her all day, they'd think she was mental. In all honesty she probably was.

"Yeah, he seemed interesting" Silena stated. "D'you believe the stories he told us?"

"Yeah. Usually I'd say that he made them up to sound cool, but he is from Yancy, and he had the whole thing with Mrs. Dodds. I think this kid's the real deal," Thalia said, and Annabeth had to agree. Percy wasn't just the typical new kid.

"I had no idea that Charlie used to live in that area though." Silena was the only person who referred to her boyfriend by his first name, Charles.

"Me neither. I guess he probably knew some of the kids Percy was talking about. Like that kid who set the desk on fire. Nico was it?" Thalia said.

"Yeah, that sounded bad. You think Percy's dangerous? Like, should we be hanging out with him?" Silena sounded worried.

"I don't know, what d'you think Annie? Annie?"

Annabeth was suddenly aware that she had been listening, completely silent. She hadn't said a word since they brought up Percy, completely lost in thought.

"Earth to Annabeth, hello?" Thalia's voice brought her back.

"Yeah? Uh, no. No, I don't think Percy's dangerous. Well maybe, I don't know" she muttered, aware that she sounded zany. Thalia and Silena exchanged looks.

"Annabeth, are you alright?" Thalia sounded concerned. She rested her hand on Annabeth's knee, who in return placed her hand on top of Thalia's.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, really." She knew they didn't believe her. "Really, I'm just tired. That's all." Thalia slowly nodded, and removed her hand.

"You know you can talk to us, right?" Silena reassured her.

"Yeah." Annabeth let a small smile move across her lips.

"Anyway, you'll never guess what?" Silena sounded excited; this was probably gossip, which had that effect on her. Silena Beauregard knew secrets about most people in the school.

"What?"

"I was talking to Rachel, and she said that she thinks she already has a crush on Percy." Annabeth froze. What? Rachel liked Percy?

"But she's only met him once?" Annabeth pointed out, trying to sound cool. Underneath, she was anything but. She didn't know what she was feeling.

"I know, but she said something about first impressions, and him being really hot, which he is. I think she likes the bad boy vibe he's got going."

Annabeth was worried again; this was a feeling she wasn't used to. She was vaguely aware that her best friends were still talking, but she couldn't even hear them. Why did she feel like this? What was this? So Rachel liked Percy, so what? But as much as she tried, Annabeth couldn't shift the feeling. It was stuck there, in her gut. In one day, Percy Jackson had come into her life and seemingly implanted himself in her brain, and now she couldn't shake him off. Why? He had been the voice in her head, and now he was causing this feeling. Because Annabeth now knew what the feeling was, and it worried her, because she had rarely felt it before.

Jealousy.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. This one was slightly harder for me to write, so I hope it went well.**


	7. Chapter 7

-Percy-

Percy woke on Friday morning to the sound of his alarm clock. He sat up, reached over to turn it off, before flopping back down onto his bed. Five more minutes wouldn't hurt right? Percy was surprisingly looking forward to school today. He couldn't wait to get to school, because the sooner he was in school, the sooner school would be finished, and after today, Percy would have completed a week at Goode. Only 25 more to go.

What a strange week it had been. Percy had, at times, felt like aliens had abducted him and forced him to integrate with their society. Goode High School was becoming the prison where Percy was kept from 8 until 4. He would go to lessons or partake in mindless small talk with people he didn't actually like, all the while watching the second hand slowly tick round on his cheap watch. Since his first day, and what was now being described as his 'showdown' with Mrs. Dodds, Percy had kept himself out of trouble. He had always loved how overblown rumors became in school. The story had changed from Percy talking back to Mrs. Dodds, to Percy threatening to punch her, squaring up to her face to face or even, Percy had overheard one student say, threatening to set her desk on fire. Well that had gotten out quickly. Not that it bothered Percy too much; it just meant he got a few extra glances here and there. He'd had one or two more lessons with Mrs. Dodds since then, but he hadn't acted out, and she, to the shock of most, was acting like nothing had happened. It seemed like she wasn't even acknowledging Percy's existence, which was perfectly fine with him.

His lunchtimes had been spent with 'the gang'. They'd all sit at the same table every Lunch and talk about the same bullshit, now and then asking Percy some questions about his experiences, no doubt wanting another story, another Percy Jackson special. Well who was he to deny his audience. The other day though, he had added a bit more violent detail to one of his stories.

_They were all sitting round the same table, captivated by another of Percy's stories._

"_Ok, so this big kid walks up to me, he's maybe like 17-18? Really tough, got some tattoos on his arms already, a few of his boys behind him. I was maybe, 13-14 at the time. 14 I think." Percy tells them. He was very animated, something the gang noticed every time he told them about his life._

"_Anyway," Percy continued, "He walks up to me, and he's like _'yo, you wouldn't be thinking you're so tough if your dad wasn't around would you?'_ Well it was something like that anyway, I don't exactly remember. Point is, he was trying to pick a fight, and he chose me." Everyone's eyes were on Percy. He made eye contact with all of them, making sure that they were listening. His eyes met a pair of stormy grey ones. They shared a momentary look before he moved on. _

"_So Nico, my cousin, is next to me, and he says to the guy _'you're still scared of his dad though'_. Now this kid doesn't want to look like a wimp in front of his buddies does he? No, he wants to look tough, so he says _'I ain't scared of no-one little man, especially not this asshole's dad'. _Suddenly, my father walks around the corner of the alleyway. Turns out, he had heard every fuckin' word that asshole had said to me, and as you can guess, he wasn't amused." There were smiles on the faces of some of the gang. Percy wasn't sure what they expected. If this had been a fairy tale, or a bedtime story, this would be the point where the heroic father scares off the evil monsters threatening his son. That was one way of looking at it, Percy thought, but they probably won't see it that way. He digressed. _

"_So suddenly, this guy's face to face with my father, who hasn't said a word yet. The guy starts muttering an apology. I'm sorry sir; it won't happen again, I meant nothing by it, all that bullshit. Then my father looks back at me, before turning to face him again, and he says quietly _'you were threatening my son'_. It wasn't a question; it was a statement, a fact. Before the guy can even open his mouth, he's got a fist in his face. My father punches him square on the nose. Then he grabs the guy's collar with his free hand and carries on punching. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten." With every number, Percy would hit his palm with his fist. _

"_The guy's bleeding, there's blood all over my father's fist. He lets go of the guy, who falls straight to the floor. He gets a few kicks for good measure before his boys go and pick him up to take him away. Turns out, my father broke that piece of shit's nose and jaw." Percy looked around and saw looks of shock on the gang's faces, but this wasn't shock like when he'd told them about the burning desk, this was scared shock. The looks he was receiving were ones of horror. He suddenly realized he had gotten carried away, and revealed much more than he intended to._

"_Anyway, they never bothered me again." he said quickly, suddenly quite self-conscious. He looked down. Luke broke the silence. _

"_Hardcore man." Some of the others nodded in agreement. _

"_Percy?" Annabeth's voice made him look up. They hadn't spoken since that walk after Psychology on his first day. "What does your father do?" _

_That was the question he didn't want to hear asked. What did his father do? He couldn't tell them the truth. _'Oh, y'know, he's one of the biggest gangsters in New York and runs nearly all crime in this area of town'_, no that was not an option. _

"_He's… a businessman."_

"_And he beats people up?" Annabeth replied curiously, clearly not believing Percy. _

"_Call it extreme negotiating tactics." Percy's tone of voice told them to drop it, and they did. No one brought it up again the rest of the day._

Looking back at that moment, Percy kicked himself. He had gotten carried away while talking. He had the intention of telling them that his father had just intimidated the boys, scared them off. But halfway through, he had gotten lost in the story, reliving every moment of it, every fantastic moment of it. You see, that particular memory was one of the best Percy had. Why? It was the one of the only times in his life that his father had openly showed his love for Percy.

The average person would see it as a moment of violence; a moment that mentally scars a child, the complete opposite of a loving act, but Percy saw the whole picture. Yes, his father had hospitalized someone right in front of his eyes, but Percy was never shocked or scared by that. Deep down, he had always known what his father was capable of. Instead, he chose to look into why he had done it. He had been defending Percy, his son. He had seen his young son in danger, and like any good father, had prevented it. Granted, he hadn't done so in the way most dads would, but then again, Poseidon had never been a dad to Percy. He was his father, but he was never a dad. You have to put in time and effort to be called a dad. You have to care for your child and be there for your child and let them know that you always will be. That was not Poseidon. That moment, in that alleyway, had been the only time that Percy felt like he had a dad, and that was why, whenever he told it, he would get carried away, lost in it. In hindsight, he should've told a different story. Hey, at least he left out one detail, his father's warning. He still remembered his fathers chilling words to the guy whose face he had just rearranged.

'_I see you near my son again, I see you talking to him, I hear that you do anything to him… I won't stop at ten punches. I'll go to twenty, then thirty, then forty, and I'll carry on until all that's left is your shoulders, neck and a pool of blood. Understand?'_

That was the first time Percy understood why so many people were afraid of his father. He knew at that moment just how dangerous a man his father could be. It should've scared him, but it didn't, because that was the only time in his childhood that Percy felt loved by both parents, not just his mom.

Percy's morning routine consisted of 50 sit-ups and 50 press-ups, followed by a shower and breakfast. This morning, he walked into the kitchen and found that it was unusually empty. He looked around the apartment and couldn't see his mother anywhere. He was beginning to get worried, when he spotted a note on the kitchen table.

**Percy, I had to go in early to open up the shop. Have a great day at school. Your father will be back tonight. Mom.**

As Percy read the note, he thought about his father being around today. He hadn't spoken to Poseidon in a week, and he would no doubt want to know how the new school was going. Percy considered telling him that he hated it and wanted to go back to Yancy, but he knew that would not be received so well. His father, for whatever reason, wanted Percy to be at Goode; nothing would change his mind. Percy sighed, before picking up his bag and walking out of the apartment, locking the door behind him.

* * *

Walking through the estate, Percy couldn't help but notice how much earlier he left for school now he was at Goode; after all, the walk to Goode had an extra 20 minutes on the walk to Yancy. He saw no kids leaving their apartments, ready for another boring day at school. It was this moment he realized that he was the only kid who lived around here that didn't go to Yancy. Great, as if he hadn't felt like an outsider enough lately. He walked past Calypso's apartment; she was no doubt asleep. She had finished high school last year, and since then had put little effort into anything except getting high. He wondered what she would do with her life, but like most people in the area, it would probably be a shitty job for Poseidon. Percy didn't want to imagine Calypso like that. He knew what some of the women did around here for money, and he couldn't bear the thought of Calypso doing that too. Just because they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend didn't mean Percy didn't care about her.

Just as Percy was about to leave the estate, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Perce, wait up!" He knew that voice, and turned, with a smile, to face his best friend Grover Underwood. Grover was quite short, and very skinny. He had curly brown hair, which he hid under a Rasta hat, and had a wispy beard. When he walked, it was often with a limp. When they were younger, Grover had been a very easy target for bullies, and that often meant Nico and Percy would have to protect him. Eventually though, everyone - Tyson, Leo, Will and Frank - began to defend Grover. After that, it became clear to the bullies that Grover was not someone they wanted to mess with. For that, Grover had been eternally grateful to his friends. He always said that they didn't have to hang around with a loser like him, but Percy didn't see it like that. Grover was one of them, and they had to stand up for one of their own. Their little gang didn't have the 'leave the weakest behind' mentality; they had a mentality of 'protect the weakest'. They were loyal to each other, they were family. That was why it bothered Percy so much that his father had secluded him from them.

"Grover!" Percy smiled. He had barely seen Grover all week.

"I wanted to walk with you. Is- is that alright?" he asked nervously. Only Grover would be nervous when talking to his best friend.

"Of course it's alright you idiot. Shit, I'd love company." He and Grover began walking down the street, going quite slowly. Percy knew there would be a point where Grover walked in one direction, to go to Yancy, and he'd walk in another, to Goode, so he wanted to make this walk last.

"So how's the new school? The number of times Percy had been asked that question this week was ridiculous.

"Boring. Really boring. I'd rather watch paint dry. Goode feels like a prison." He saw the sympathetic look in Grover's eyes.

"Well if it's any consolation, people at Yancy miss you."

"Ha, I highly doubt that." Percy joked, "You forget Grover, no one at Yancy had feelings."

"Well I miss you" Grover said quietly, looking down at the pavement. Percy looked at his best friend for a minute, before looking forward. He wasn't sure what to say. Feelings weren't his forte. Slowly, he patted Grover on the shoulder.

"I miss you too buddy. I really do." An awkward silence was in danger of sneaking up on them, so Grover quickly changed the subject.

"So how's Beckendorf?"

"He's good, I think." Percy had told the whole group about Beckendorf, how he went to Goode and how he was a rich kid now. Apart from Tyson, who had been too young to remember, and Leo, who arrived after he left, the gang had been stunned. What followed had been mixed reactions. Grover was happy and wanted to meet up with him, while Will been more bothered with what he was like now. Nico had not taken it well. Percy recalled the words like 'traitor', 'asshole', and 'another fucking rich kid' being used.

"You should bring him over, we can hang out again, just like old times." Grover sounded excited. Percy didn't want to crush his hopes, but he had to.

"Grover, I don't think that's a good idea. You remember Nico's reaction, he was mad. He doesn't want to see Beckendorf."

"Look Nico didn't mean all of that, he was just overreacting."

"I don't think it's wise to invite Beckendorf over. I have no idea how Nico would react." That was becoming the case more and more. Nico had the worst mood swings of anyone Percy knew. One day he would be perfectly normal, the next he would be a bubbling ball of brutal rage.

"At least think about it." Grover pleaded with him. Percy nodded, somewhat reluctantly.

"Hey, I got some good news the other day," Grover said, "my Uncle Ferdinand could be getting out of jail soon. They think that it could be around Christmas time." Grover looked thrilled, and Percy couldn't help being happy for him. Grover never knew his parents, and as a child had been taken in by his Uncle Ferdinand. However, Ferdinand worked for Poseidon, and ten years ago had been on a job gone wrong, the same job as Beckendorf's dad. Neither Mark Beckendorf nor Ferdinand talked, so both received ten-year prison sentences. They both could've gotten much longer if Harry Di Angelo, Nico's dad, wasn't such a good lawyer. When it happened, Beckendorf moved away, and Grover was forced to live with his Grandma. Now, it looked like they would both be out soon.

"You must be excited. I'm happy for you man" Percy said, and he really meant it. Grover deserved to be happy for once.

"Thanks, I really am. I hardly saw him in prison. Grandma wouldn't let me visit. Y'know, Uncle Ferdinand was the closest person I had to a father." Percy knew the effect of not having a father figure all too well, and it wasn't good. Speaking of fathers, Percy thought about how happy his father would be to hear this news. Ferdinand and Mark had been two of his best guys.

"Well," Grover exclaimed, "this is where we part ways I guess." Percy looked around. Sure enough, this was where they had to go in separate directions.

"So long Percy" Grover declared, doing a fake salute.

"See you on the other side Grover" Percy replied in a joke voice, also saluting. He walked in the opposite direction to Grover, laughing. Jokes like that were one of the many reasons Percy called Grover his best friend. Grover was loyal, dependable and honest, but he was also the only person Percy felt remotely comfortable opening up to. He knew that the others would mock him, but not Grover. He would listen to you, but he would also help you in the best way he knew how. Grover was what Percy missed most about Yancy. Once again, he was angry with his father for moving him, for flipping his life upside-down, but he was also upset.

"Get yourself together Percy." he muttered to himself. He was Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon. He didn't let people know he was scared or upset. He didn't show his emotions. No, he would get to school, sit in his lessons, not cause any trouble, talk to people who he would rather not, and then go home, and this strange, disconcerting week would be over.

* * *

Unfortunately for Percy, the last part of his plan, go home, seemed to be in jeopardy. He didn't have detention or anything, no; in some ways it was worse than that. They wanted him to socialize.

"C'mon Percy, we need you." Luke pleaded with him. "It's our first practice, and we don't have either of our Cornerbacks." Yes, Luke was trying to get Percy to go to football practice, and no, Percy didn't want to.

"You don't need me." He pointed out. It wasn't just Luke, it was Beckendorf, Michael, the Stolls and Jason, the whole shebang.

"Oh we do. You heard Luke, we don't have a Cornerback." Jason chipped in. Getting out of this was going to be tricky.

"Ok, you may need someone, but you certainly don't want me. I mean, guys, I've never played a game of football before." It was true. Percy had rarely found time to play sports as a child.

"That doesn't matter, we'll teach you the rules." Jason replied.

"But- but I don't even know what a Cornerback does." He was struggling to come up with excuses.

"We'll teach you that too" Connor added. Damn, Percy thought to himself, these guys had an answer for everything.

"I don't… have the kit. I can't play in these can I?" he gestured to his clothes, "That would be stupid."

"The school has got spares. They ain't the best, but they're good enough." Luke told him. Percy was running out of ideas. He looked past Luke, at Annabeth. She was smirking slightly, as if amused by his futile attempts to escape. In fact, all of the girls seemed to find his predicament funny. He sighed.

"I'm not getting out of this am I?" he looked at Beckendorf, who had a slightly sympathetic look on his face.

"Not really buddy." He smiled supportively. "Hell man, you might enjoy it."

"Just this once." Percy bargained.

"Ok, just today." Beckendorf assured him.

On that note, Percy nodded; he would give it a go. The boys all cheered, patting him on the back.

"That's the spirit. Let's go play some football!" Luke sounded overjoyed. "We looked at everyone in the year, but none of them filled the criteria. You're the closest we've got to an athlete, I mean, you don't look out of shape…" Luke rambled on about how important this was for the team, but Percy wasn't really listening. Five minutes ago, he'd been preparing to walk home, now he was walking towards the changing rooms. This was not how he envisioned his day ending.

As they entered the changing room, Luke handed Percy an old gym kit that he could wear. He sat down on a bench, when Luke walked over and sat down next to him.

"Percy, we're having a little gathering, a party if you will, after practice, at my house. Just our group. You're gonna come right?" Luke told him. Great, Percy thought, more socializing.

"Look, Luke, I really just want to go home after this, relax y'know?" He tried to talk his way out of it.

"You can relax there. Everyone wants you to come." He said reassuringly. Then he leaned in closer to whisper, "Look, we'll have some drink, we'll have some weed, it'll be a good time." To any other 17 year old that may have sounded tempting, but Percy could get plenty of both if he really wanted to.

"Luke, I really don't feel up to it."

"Percy, I'm trying to be friendly here, ok? I like you, and I think you'd have a good time. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or anything, but I really would like you to be there, we all would." Percy thought about it. Luke was trying to be nice, he was going out of his way to include Percy in their group. Should Percy make the same amount of effort? It was just a party, and it might be enjoyable, who knows? But what would his old friends think of him, hanging out with rich kids outside of school, going to football practice. What would his father think?

'_My father doesn't rule my life though.' _Percy thought to himself. Neither did his friends. He was his own person.

"Yeah, alright, I'll go." Percy looked at Luke, nodding. A huge smile spread on Luke's face.

"Awesome. You'll enjoy yourself. I guarantee it. Hey, Rachel will be there. I heard that she likes you." He smiled suggestively at Percy, before walking away, laughing. Percy didn't care that Rachel liked him; he had no interest in her. He had little interest in any of these rich girls, except Annabeth of course, but that wasn't any kind of sexual interest. It was more out of curiosity. He pulled the spare shirt out of the bag it was in and began to change.

The guys' talking died down in the background. Percy looked up to see what had caused it, and found them all staring at him. He looked at them all before it clicked in his head. Shit. He had taken his shirt off. Percy looked down at his fairly well built torso, and his eyes were met with scars. Percy Jackson had scars of all sizes over his body. They were the result of the gang fights he had gotten into growing up. Most were just cuts that were never given the time to heal properly before being opened again, some were from broken bones, and some of the larger, deeper ones were from weapons. Bottles, chains, blades, Percy had been in a fair few dangerous fights in his life. The looks on the boy's faces said it all; they had never seen anything like this, except maybe on the TV. Percy almost wanted to laugh. They looked ridiculous.

"Hey," Percy broke the silence, "you should see the other guy." He laughed, and a few of them joined in. Then, he saw the look on Beckendorf's face. He was the only person who looked scared. Maybe that was because he knew that his future would've been the same had his mother stayed. He looked at Percy's scars and saw what would have been, but also what never was. Percy pulled on the old shirt, which was slightly too small, and the pair of shorts, before lacing up his boots. He walked up to Luke, who was still not speaking, and lightly patted him on the arm.

"Let's go play some football." Mimicking what Luke had said earlier.

* * *

"Ok then Mr. Jackson! The Cornerback's job is to cover the opposition receiver, intercept offensive passes and make tackles. Comprende?"

Coach Hedge was the shortest adult Percy had ever seen, standing at no more than five foot tall. It was almost laughable that this man was a high school football coach.

"Uh yeah, I understand." Percy replied tentatively.

"You ever played a game of football before kid?"

"Um… not really no." Percy realized how stupid he sounded, "I've watched football." As if adding that helped at all.

"Christ! Castellan! What kind of replacement do you call this?!" Coach Hedge yelled at Luke, walking up to him as if to look intimidating. Admittedly, it was hard to look intimidating when you're five feet tall and can't look the other person in the eye, but he was definitely doing his best. While Coach Hedge was shouting at the team, Percy scanned his surroundings. The pitch was behind the school, and it had two sets of stands on either side. As Percy looked more closely at the stands, he saw the girls sitting there, clearly waiting for the guys. Great, Percy thought, more people that he could embarrass himself in front of, because this would no doubt be embarrassing. As he stood on the pitch, he seriously questioned how stupid he was to have agreed to this. Right now he could be at home, on his couch watching bad TV, or he could be with Nico, Grover and the others, just having fun, or he could be with Calypso, 'hanging out'. But no, instead he was standing in the middle of a football pitch, being yelled at by a five foot tall man. Life couldn't be better, right? He briefly remembered back to his first day, when he considered trying out for the team. He hadn't really meant it. He enjoyed watching football, but he didn't play it.

"JACKSON! Over here now!" The barking of Coach Hedge pulled him from his thoughts. He slowly trotted over to the huddle.

"Alright Jackson, try not to mess up." Coach tried to sound motivational, but it just came across as patronizing. As the guys ran onto the pitch, Percy followed behind, silently reminding himself never give in to incessant begging again.

Practice was tiring. Percy had never run so much in his life, and he had had to do a lot of running in the past, from other gangs and occasionally the police. But at least with that, it felt like there was a reason he was running. With football, it just felt like torture. First, Coach Hedge had had them do fitness, followed by drills, and finally a small game. As it turns out, Percy was quite good at playing Cornerback. He made a few good interceptions and tackles, and after the session, Coach Hedge told him to that the place in the team was his if he ever wanted it, not that he did. But it was nice to know that he was semi-decent at something.

Now they were all standing outside of the school, waiting for the last of their group to finish changing.

"Percy man, you were great." Beckendorf said as he clapped him on the back. The others voiced their agreement. Percy just nodded; he didn't need their approval. He saw the girls walking towards them, Annabeth at the front. She went straight to Luke, and gave him a long kiss. Percy averted his eyes. He didn't need to see that. But why? He had no problems watching couples kiss, so why had he not wanted to look this time?

"Great job Percy." It was Annabeth who had spoken; she eyed Percy with a smile; which he hesitantly returned.

"Yeah Percy, you were really good" Rachel said. She too smiled at him, which he returned, but it meant nothing. Not like when he smiled at Annabeth. He was sure that that meant something, that they had a connection.

"So are we all ready?" Luke asked the group. People nodded, and Luke put his arm around Annabeth as he began to walk down the street.

"Let's go!" he exclaimed loudly. Some of the others cheered, as they walked on with him. Percy was the only one who wasn't walking. He stood there for a second, wondering how they'd react if he just made a run for it. He could probably be at Olympus Estate in 20 minutes. But just as he was considering this, Annabeth turned her head and looked at him, again with that smile. She tilted her head, motioning for him to follow. Well, he could hardly refuse now. With a sigh, Percy followed the group to Luke's house.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter took me longer than I would've liked to write, so I hope you all liked it. I want to say that I don't know much about American Football or how High School sports work in America, but I did some research, and I'm guessing it's pretty similar to the UK so I went with that. As always, hope you enjoyed reading. R&R**


	8. Chapter 8

-Annabeth-

For Annabeth, the weekend couldn't have come sooner. She felt like she needed a break, from school and from social interaction. She was only a week in and already her head felt like it was about to explode. That feeling usually kicked in around April, not September. And of course, at the weekend, she wouldn't have to see Percy.

Her feelings towards Percy Jackson scared her. She had done her best not to talk to him, since she had felt that moment of jealousy on the first day. She wanted to get a grip on her feelings before she talked to him. But getting a grip on her feelings was harder than she thought, especially seeing as her instinct was to push them to the back of her mind, to run from them. When Annabeth first saw Percy Jackson, she knew that there was something about him; something about him that she liked, maybe even recognized, but she didn't think there was any kind of attraction towards him. Sure, she thought he was attractive, but she wasn't _attracted _to him. However, when she heard that Rachel was, and she had felt jealous, she started to think maybe she was, even if only a little, attracted to Percy.

That made Annabeth uncomfortable. She had never really felt any kind of attraction to anyone else, let alone one this strong. Every time her mind began to wander, it landed on Percy Jackson. But what was even more uncomfortable was that she didn't want the feelings gone, not completely anyway. There were times when she liked the feelings, because it allowed her to focus on something other than her schoolwork, and her mother's expectations. But she didn't like the jealousy that overcame her whenever Rachel talked about Percy, mainly because jealousy was an unwelcome feeling for Annabeth. This weekend, she'd have time away from them all, to think it over in her head. She couldn't wait for next week, simply because it would mean this strange week would be over. She just had one more party at Luke's to get through.

* * *

Luke Castellan's house was, in typical Goode High School fashion, immense; after all, his father was the CEO of one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world. Unfortunately, that meant that he was rarely home. His mother was also absent; she was in some kind of mental health institution. It was actually quite a sad story. After Luke had been born, his mother suffered from postnatal depression, and never really recovered. She developed a drug addiction and had been to rehab on more than one occasion, and then went crazy when she found out that Luke's father, Herman Castellan, had been having an affair. Apparently she had tried to kill herself. Family was not a topic that Luke ever really liked to talk about; he basically lived at home with whatever maids and nannies his father hired. But the plus side was that if the group ever wanted to hang out, they knew that Luke's house would usually be empty.

They all immediately made their way to the garden, all except Percy, who was just staring at the rooms in amazement.

"Percy, you coming or what?" Luke laughed.

"Yeah, I've just never been in a house this big before." The guys seemed a bit taken aback by that. They all lived in houses of a similar magnitude, and were all so used to the luxury that they never really contemplated how other people lived. Percy probably lived in an apartment smaller than Luke's front hall. It was quite incredible to see the look of wonder on his face; it had been years since Annabeth had seen anyone look like that when in Luke's house.

They all carried on into the garden, where Luke had a small seating area. Only the most expensive garden furniture was allowed in the garden, obviously, but expensive meant comfortable. Annabeth made her way to the most comfortable chair before anyone else could. Everyone sat down and made themselves comfy, except for Luke, who went back into the house before emerging with a few bottles of alcohol. Percy just stared at the house and gardens in amazement.

"Who's ready to have fun?" he exclaimed loudly, as he placed the bottles on the table. Thalia immediately grabbed the vodka, and everyone laughed, as she poured a small amount into a cup, and drank it all straight. Thalia liked to be considered a hardcore drinker. Luke also pulled out a cooler, which contained some beers, and Annabeth watched from the comfort of the huge reclining chair as they were passed around. Only Percy looked somewhat tentative.

"Is your dad alright with this Luke?" he asked as he passed his own beer from hand to hand, seemingly nervously. Luke chuckled.

"My dad's never home, he's probably with his mistress, and the maids have gone home so we're alone for the next few hours. Honestly though, I doubt my father would really care." That seemed to be enough motivation for Percy, as he pulled out a lighter, and in one fluid movement used it to open up the beer. Everyone stared at him in amazement.

"Dude, that was awesome, how'd you do it?" Michael sounded genuinely awestruck.

"Look, when you don't have any bottle openers, you learn to improvise" Percy said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Suddenly, all the guys were begging him to show them.

"You boys are so easily impressed." Silena laughed. Annabeth had to agree. She was more interested in why Percy had a lighter; he didn't strike her as the smoking type. Then again, she hardly knew him, despite her feelings making her think otherwise.

"So you take a lighter to school?" Apparently Beckendorf had wondered the same thing, as he looked at Percy inquisitively.

"Yeah… I usually have one on me in case I'm in the mood for a cigarette, that's all. Well, that, or if I'm ever in the mood to set a desk on fire again." At that last line, he smirked playfully, but to anyone else, it could've come across as dangerous.

"What else d'you take to school?" Beckendorf asked. Percy looked at him for a moment, before leaning back.

"You really wanna know?" Everyone seemed to nod, and with that confirmation, Percy reached in and emptied out his pockets, dropping the contents onto the table at the center of the circle.

He pulled out an old mobile phone, his wallet, from which he pulled out around $15 and a condom, a key (no doubt to his apartment) and finally, a small switchblade. The gang looked at the pile in awe, as if it was the most incredible thing they'd ever seen.

"You take all that to school?" someone asked in disbelief, but for the life of her, Annabeth couldn't tell who. She was not paying attention, because her gaze was glued to one thing, the condom, as strange at that was. She'd guessed that Percy was sexually active, but did this mean he had a girlfriend? Were there many girls that Percy had taken an interest in? Annabeth knew that she had to hide her growing jealousy. Rachel was bad enough, but this was practically a flashing sign that said there were other girls too. Suddenly, she noticed a hand pick up the condom, and she looked up to see it was Luke. She snapped out of it.

"So, you... y'know?" Luke asked, indicating the object in his hand. Percy just smiled and nodded. "So who's the lucky girl?" he asked "Or guy." He added, as if to be sure.

"Girl. She's just a girl from my estate. We get together every once in a while, hang out, have sex, smoke pot. We just have fun, that's all." Why did that make Annabeth so jealous? She should've guessed that a guy like Percy probably had a girlfriend already, yet to actually have confirmation, that was a whole different ballpark. Everyone seemed to be glancing over at Rachel, who had a completely straight face, no doubt hiding jealousy too. The difference was that everyone knew that she liked Percy; no one knew Annabeth's feelings.

"So you have a girlfriend?" Rachel asked quietly. The atmosphere seemed to become tenser, as realization grew on Percy's face, before he laughed.

"No, no no. Calypso isn't my girlfriend. I care about her, and we get on really well, but she's not my girlfriend. More like a friend with benefits." So this harlot had a name, Calypso. Annabeth was surprised by her immediate dislike of this girl, after all, it was pretty unjustified. Rachel seemed a bit more satisfied, as she smiled before taking another gulf of her vodka and coke. Thalia, in her slightly drunken state, tried to change the subject.

"You bring a knife to school? That fuckin' badass." She wasn't slurring her words quite yet, but at the rate Thalia usually went, it wouldn't be long until then. Annabeth had also wondered about the knife, as there were never things like that found at Goode.

"Well if I'm ever jumped on the way home from school, I know I can defend myself." Percy pointed out. Annabeth had never really been in or around Percy's area of town, so she wasn't sure if he was joking or not about 'getting jumped'.

"Man, you know you can get excluded for having that right?" Beckendorf voiced. Percy just smiled casually.

"Yeah, but you're not gonna tell on me are you?" he replied. That could've come across as a threat, but Beckendorf chose not to see it like that.

"No man, I'm just saying if the school ever found out then-"

"Beckendorf, the school won't find out." Percy cut him off, talking slowly, matter-of-factly. That seemed to be enough to get Beckendorf to stop talking about it. Annabeth couldn't help but notice the mood had gone down slightly, as she took a swig of her drink. She knew that before too long, the alcohol would go into effect. Annabeth wanted to relax and to have fun, to not have to think about her feelings for a few hours. She knew that she may regret it tomorrow, but she also didn't really care right now. She poured herself another drink while Luke changed the subject.

"So who's ready for a little smoke?" he asked everyone, as he pulled out a bag of marijuana. From his back pocket, he pulled out some papers and began to take them out.

"Luke, let me." Percy spoke up, as he held out his hand.

"I can roll you know." Luke pointed out.

"How long does it take you?"

"Around two to three minutes I guess, I don't know." Percy just laughed, before further holding his hand out. Annabeth was watching this exchange with fascination. Luke, almost begrudgingly, handed over everything in his hands to Percy, who made space on the table, before he began rolling. Within about 30 seconds, he held up a perfectly rolled joint, which he handed to Luke, and then began rolling a second.

"Holy shit that was fast" Silena exclaimed. Percy just gave her a devilish smile.

"I got a lot of practice."

"No shit" Luke muttered under his breath, examining the joint in his hand. "Percy, this is incredible. I gotta try this." As he lit it, and breathed it in, Annabeth couldn't help but notice how naturally he did it now. She remembered when Luke had just started smoking pot, and she had done it a few times with him, but it had only been every once in a while. Now she was pretty sure he did it everyday, and that he was well on his way to becoming a complete pothead. She had no doubt it cost him a lot of money to keep his habit up, but money was never a huge issue for Luke. She also guessed that he was experimenting with harder drugs. She knew that whenever he went out for the night, he would probably have pills on him. She just hoped, for his own sake, that he didn't get hooked on anything too hard or dangerous. She knew a few rich kids who had gotten coke addictions. Drugs were becoming Luke's answer to 'what should I spend my fathers millions of dollars on?'

"Percy, this is one of the best joints I ever smoked" he said between draws. When he went to hand it to Percy though, Percy refused.

"I'm not smoking tonight." He sounded serious, which only served to make Annabeth that bit more curious. Why would this boy who could roll a joint in 30 seconds not want to join in in smoking it? As he took another swig of his beer, his eyes made contact with Annabeth's for the first time that night. It was a quick fleeting glace, but it excited her. It seemed to be daring her to do something, only she had no idea what that was. He did though, and he was being cocky about that. That's what it seemed like anyway. This only reassured her of her plan. She would get Percy Jackson.

"Ok then, more for the rest of us" Luke said loudly.

* * *

As the night went on, everyone slowly relaxed. After about an hour, Thalia was so drunk that she was just mindlessly dancing to the music playing in the background, along with some of the other girls. Luke was just sitting there, staring into nothing while some of the other guys talked. Annabeth was still sitting in her comfy reclining chair. She had not actually said anything to anyone. Had they not all been either drunk or high, they probably would've noticed, but no one had said anything to her. She hoped it stayed that way.

For most of the night she had been glancing at Percy, trying not to make her interest in him obvious. At that moment, he was sitting in the same chair, talking to Michael Yew. Then, suddenly, in her slightly drunken state, Rachel went over and sat herself down on Percy's lap. She was laughing and even he seemed to be finding it funny. Annabeth told herself to look away, she knew that jealousy would rear its ugly head soon enough, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the encounter. It was like self-abuse: she knew that she didn't want to see it, but she had to look. Why did she have to feel like this?

Percy and Rachel talked for a good five minutes before Rachel's lips started kissing Percy's cheek, then his jawbone, then his neck. Annabeth felt her heart rate quicken. She felt like such an idiot. Closing her eyes, she tried to ignore. 'You have a boyfriend' she told herself over and over again.

'_But you don't actually care about him do you?'_

Not the voice again. She'd kept it quiet all night. Even now it sounded faint. Annabeth took another gulp of her drink, hoping it would just go away. Just as she opened her eyes, she saw Percy and Rachel's lips meet. It was short, but enough for Annabeth's mind to go racing. She couldn't handle this, she had to get out of here, had to have five minutes to herself. She got up, muttering something about going to the bathroom, although she doubted anyone was listening, and made her way into Luke's house. She avoided glancing at Percy and Rachel as she walked past them.

She walked into Luke's kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from the tap. Maybe water would help, after all, her head was spinning a bit. She silently cursed herself, having probably made a huge fool of herself walking out like that. But no one came in to check, so maybe no one noticed.

'_They'll all have figured out by now.' _

"Shut up" she muttered, aware she'd spoken out loud. If the first sign of madness was talking to yourself, Annabeth was sure that she'd passed that a while ago. What she was feeling right now only confirmed what she was afraid to admit. She liked Percy Jackson. She wanted to be with Percy Jackson. She wanted to have Percy Jackson. But saying that in her head didn't make her feel like the load had been taken off, she just felt worse. She felt worse because she knew that she couldn't act on these feelings, not without messing up her life.

'_Is that not what you wanted though? Something to come in and break up the normal routine of your life?' _

She knew that the voice was right, but it was one thing saying that and another thing to actually have it staring you in the face. Now that she was in that position, Annabeth had no idea what she really wanted. She was suddenly aware that there were some tears on her cheeks. Damn it, she thought.

"Annabeth?" a familiar voice spoke behind her. She turned quickly and saw the boy who had invaded her thoughts over the past week standing in the doorway. Percy Jackson.

"Percy…" she breathed, before wiping her cheeks, trying to disguise the fact that she was crying.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as he moved closer to her. He seemed to walk carefully, as if she was a dangerous animal that could at any sudden movement become angry and eat him.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she replied, trying to play off the little breakdown she had just had.

"It's just you left pretty quickly and looked distressed. I don't think anyone else noticed." By now he was standing opposite her, an arms length away.

"I'd just had one too many drinks, that's all." She said, hoping he wouldn't dig any further. Thankfully, he didn't.

Silence overwhelmed them, and Annabeth could feel his gaze on her. She didn't look into his eyes, because she wasn't sure how she'd react.

"Percy, why don't you go back outside, I'll be there in a minute." Why did she want him to leave? This was her chance wasn't it? They were both alone, close to each other.

"They're not that interesting outside, if I'm being honest" Percy said, shrugging his shoulders. Annabeth smiled slightly.

"You seemed to be interested in Rachel…" she pointed out, mocking him. If she didn't want him to think anything was up, she had to act like it. Laughter filled the room, Percy's laughter. It was the kind of laugh that made other people laugh too.

"I don't like Rachel," he said finally, "not like that anyway. She's great, but I'm just not that into her."

"Didn't look that way outside." She muttered, looking away from him.

"'Outside' was just me being bored. I kissed her, and I won't do it again." Him saying that made Annabeth take a sharp breath. Did he mean that?

"Besides, you're the most interesting person here" he added at the end. Annabeth held her breath, what did that mean. Did he feel the same way that she felt? Had he been wrestling with his thoughts all week? Unable to take it anymore, she looked into his eyes, and felt all the walls she'd built crumble. The beautiful sea green colour seemed to be changing, moving, like the very waves of the ocean. They drew her in, and Annabeth made an in the moment decision that she knew she may regret later. She reduced the distance between them and kissed Percy.

It was a light kiss at first, lasting only a second. When she pulled away and looked into his eyes, she saw a hunger in them. Before she knew it, he pulled her into another kiss, this one longer. She leaned into it, and closed her eyes. All she could hear was her increasing heartbeat, and wondered if his was going at the same rate. Suddenly, she felt his hand rest on her neck, as he pulled her closer. His touch was gentle, not forceful. His lips were hard, but Annabeth could also feel a tenderness to them. She wrapped her arm around him, as suddenly his other arm rested itself on her lower back. She pressed her body into his, she wanted more. She had kissed Luke so many times over the duration of their relationship, but never had she felt like this.

Luke!

That was enough to snap her out of it. She quickly pulled away from Percy. She didn't know how long they'd been kissing, it could've been seconds, minutes or hours, and as much as she'd enjoyed it, she also knew that kissing him in her boyfriend's kitchen probably wasn't the best idea. Anyone could walk in. They still had each other's arms wrapped around them, and they were breathing heavily, staring at each other, when they heard a voice.

"Annabeth?" It was Silena. Very quickly, her and Percy separated, just before Silena walked in. "Oh, you're both in here. We just wondered where you were, that's all."

"I'll be through in a minute, just wanted a glass of water" she said. Silena nodded, but looked at both of them suspiciously, as if she was guessing what exactly they'd been doing.

"Ok" she said quietly, before walking out. If Silena knew, Annabeth knew that she wouldn't tell anyone; she'd talk to her directly first. Annabeth decided to cross that bridge when she got to it.

They were both alone again, Percy and Annabeth. She couldn't help but notice that that had a ring to it, Percy and Annabeth. Their eyes met, green on grey. She was unsure of what his eyes were saying, but they looked just like they had earlier. The urge to kiss him arose again, but she knew that it would be a bad idea.

"So…" Percy said, somewhat awkwardly, "does this happen again?" It made Annabeth think. Now that she'd kissed Percy, all she wanted was more. But she couldn't say that, could she? At least not while she was still with Luke.

"I don't know" she answered. "But I'd like it to."

A smile crept onto his face, that same smile that they'd shared on the first day. He just nodded, and walked out of the kitchen. Annabeth stood in the room for a second, with only her thoughts. Had she just made a huge mistake? And if she had, why did she feel so good? She quickly followed Percy out of the room, to rejoin her friends. This night had taken an unexpected turn.

* * *

**A/N: I know this update is a bit later, but I've been quite busy recently, and haven't had loads of time to write. As always, hope you all enjoyed reading. Please review. I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who follows, as this story reached 50+ follows a few days ago. You guys are awesome. **


	9. Chapter 9

-Percy-

Walking through the Olympus Estate late at night could be very dangerous if you weren't careful. People seemed to never go to sleep, because there was nearly always someone outside. Olympus Estate consisted of four long buildings in the shape of a square, with three being identical and one being slightly larger. That was the building Poseidon lived in. At the center of the square there was a small park, and around the sides and the back of the buildings there were alleyways and paths that were almost always occupied by some kind of group of youths or gang members. The walls were a pale white, but they'd become more of a grey colour over the years, and were mostly covered with graffiti anyway. Some of the apartments faced onto the park, while some faced onto the street. Neither was a particularly good view. There were usually people either sitting outside the apartments, in the park or in the street at any time of the day. This meant that if you weren't from the local area, or you were from a rival gang, or you were just plain rude to anyone, well, you better be careful, because most of the locals didn't take kindly to strangers.

You also didn't call the police if you got into trouble. That was a rule. If you were hurt, no ambulance for you. All problems were brought to Poseidon, or if he wasn't there, one of his top 'henchmen'. If you were injured at all, there was an old doctor on the estate who you went to, Paolo Solace, Will's father, sometimes called Apollo. Living on Olympus Estate brought on a lot of Greek Mythology nicknames. It was only in the rare circumstance that Apollo couldn't help you that you went to a hospital, but even then, the local hospital seemed to know a lot of what went on in the area, so they didn't ask questions.

If you had a dispute with someone else in the gang, you were supposed to go to Poseidon to sort it out. If you were in trouble with the police, go to Poseidon and he'd deal with it. If you were threatened or injured by another gang, go to Poseidon and… well you get the point. Poseidon dealt with all problems because no one wanted the police sniffing around. Fortunately, most people could handle themselves, and didn't run to the boss with every small issue they had, particularly the younger members. To a lot of them, asking the big guy to solve your problem was similar to being a coward, or running away. Percy in particular couldn't do this, being the son of Poseidon. Everyone would just call him a daddy's boy, no; he had always stood up for himself.

As he walked through the estate at night, Percy spotted a few groups of people. He nodded a greeting at them, seeing as he knew most people around here. Olympus at night was only safe for the inhabitants. Percy could see his own apartment door, but he didn't want to go home yet. It was midnight, and he'd left Luke's about 30 minutes ago. It really had been an eventful night. Instead of walking straight to his apartment, where his mother was no doubt waiting for him to come home, he sat down on a bench in the park, and thought about the past few hours.

He'd kissed Annabeth. Well technically she'd kissed him first, but he returned it. And it hadn't been an ordinary kiss either, after all he'd also kissed Rachel; but as he'd said earlier he didn't really like Rachel, not like that anyway. Annabeth on the other hand was different. Percy had been sure that he didn't have any sort of attraction to her beyond admitting she was attractive, but that kiss had changed things a bit. Now, he couldn't get the image of her standing just in front of him out of his head. He could easily recall the smell of her perfume, the taste of her lips, the feel of her body. It was like she was a drug that Percy had tried, and now he was addicted.

He wasn't even sure why he had kissed back. When she had kissed him, he had been so surprised he barely had time to react before she had pulled away, looking slightly embarrassed. Maybe it was her embarrassment, maybe it was her looks, or maybe it was the fact that Percy actually quite liked it, but whatever it was, he had leaned forward and returned the favour.

And he had really enjoyed it. His heart had been racing so fast he could practically hear it in his ears afterwards, and when Annabeth pulled away, Percy had actually been disappointed. Of course, he wasn't an idiot. He knew that kissing Luke's girlfriend in his own house could come across as rude, disrespectful and would no doubt cause serious problems. And then Silena walked in. It had been so obvious from her face that she knew what had happened. Percy decided to let Annabeth deal with that. After all, they were all her friends.

Annabeth's last words still rung in Percy's ears, after he'd asked if it would happen again.

"_I'd like it to."_

Did that mean she liked him? Would they kiss again? Percy quickly stopped his train of thought from going down that path. Why did he care so much? An hour ago he hadn't felt like this. Did one kiss change that much?

Percy was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the well-dressed man approaching until he was standing in front of him.

"Percy?" the voice was deep, and dripped with authority, but there was also an edge to it. It wasn't hard to tell that this man wasn't too fond of Percy. Percy knew who it was instantly, of course. He raised his eyes and saw one of the most intimidating men he knew standing in front of him, holding out his hand.

Atlas.

Atlas was Calypso's father, and he had other daughters as well, but none of them lived on Olympus estate anymore. Now, you may be wondering what Atlas's name was, and honestly, Percy had no idea. He had always just gone by his surname. Atlas was one of Poseidon's top guys. In fact it was probably safe to call him the second in command. He was strong, well muscled and always dressed better than most people in Olympus; it seemed he was fond of suits. His sleeked back black hair and stone grey eyes only added to the intimidation levels. If anyone around here looked like a proper, stereotypical gangster, it was Atlas. Oh, and he wasn't too fond of Percy.

You see, Percy had dared to touch Atlas' daughter, and despite the fact that he was just about as distant as a father could be to Calypso, he didn't want anyone touching her. When he first found out about Percy and Calypso, the only thing that had prevented him from 'ripping Percy's spine out' (his words) had been the fact that he was Poseidon's son. This meant that he was the last person Percy particularly wanted to see after midnight.

Percy looked at the outstretched hand of Atlas and shook it. It felt like he was attempting to crush Percy's hand with his own, his immense strength evident.

"Atlas… Sir. Hello" Percy muttered. He was never quite sure how to address his father's friends.

"You're on your own" the suit clad man pointed out.

"How observant of you" Percy muttered under his breath, sarcastically. It was dangerous; Atlas was known to have a short fuse. Even a small bit of sarcasm might send him into a rage, but if he heard Percy's comment, he didn't react to it.

"Tell me, what are you doing out so late, on your own?" Atlas asked. Percy wanted to know why he cared; after all, past experiences told him that Atlas wasn't his number one fan.

"Well I was with friends earlier, and on the walk back I decided to sit down for a minute." Atlas nodded, as if he was genuinely interested. Suddenly a huge smile broke on his face.

"And you are aware that your father is waiting in your apartment for you to get home. Has been for about four hours." Atlas flashed his pearly whites, with one golden one, as he saw the panic spread in the sea green eyes. His father was home?

Percy knew better than most how his father hated waiting, so the knowledge that he'd been back for four hours, waiting for Percy was enough to press the panic button inside his head. Would he be angry? That was a stupid question; of course he'd be angry. Percy could see that Atlas was enjoying his momentary freak out, but honestly he didn't care. He quickly got up, excused himself and walked straight to his apartment door.

* * *

As he entered the apartment, he heard what sounded like a muffled argument in the kitchen.

"He'll be here, ok?" Percy recognized the voice of his mother.

"He better be." That was his father. Percy didn't like his tone of voice. He braced himself for whatever torrent of words his father would throw at him. He was 17 years old, and he could still get nervous whenever he was in trouble with his father.

"Guys, I'm home!" he called out. Immediately the talking stopped, and Percy heard footsteps.

"Where the fuck have you been?!"

That was, of course, Poseidon. Now Percy was never actually sure what his father's real name was. He knew his real surname was Waters, but he never asked him what his first name actually was. Percy always guessed it was Peter or Paul or something like that. The first thing anyone would notice about Poseidon was how intimidating he was. Percy would rather run off and face one hundred Atlases than his father if he could. Poseidon was tall, around 6'4", and was incredibly well built. He kept his jet-black hair and beard neatly cut, and his face looked like it might break if he tried to smile. Whenever he wore a short-sleeved shirt, like he was right now, you could see lots of tattoos up and down his arms. A gold medallion, shaped like a trident, hung from his neck, and he had a collection of rings on his fingers. The rings actually served another purpose, and that was to add extra pain when he punched someone.

"Nice to see you too dad" Percy replied, perhaps a little bravely, in a sarcastic tone. His father walked closer to him.

"Don't get fuckin' rude with me, answer the damn question. Where have you been?" His father sounded irritated, and that irritated Percy. He hadn't seen his son in a week, and he didn't even say hi first, no, it was straight to swearing at him.

"Percy," his mother ran up and hugged him "you should've called." Sally Jackson never went down the 'Poseidon route', in fact, Percy struggled to remember the last time she'd gotten really angry with him.

"I know, I'm sorry mom."

"Hey, answer the question." Poseidon shouted. It was evident that he would be reaching new levels of anger soon.

"Poseidon, just lower your voice. Calm down." Sally tried to keep the situation from getting out of hand; after all, they had neighbours.

"Calm down? Don't fucking tell me to calm down. You watch your damn mouth Sally," he barked, turning his gaze to Percy's mom. Sally was not a short woman, but Poseidon still towered over her. Percy was worried for a second that his father may go too far and hit her or something.

"Hey!" Percy yelled, "You don't talk to my mother like that. You're pissed at me, so shout at me. You wanna know where I was? I was with some people from school. They invited me to a party, and I couldn't really say no." He could see his father was about to interrupt him, but he didn't give him the chance. "You know why? Because I'm trying to fit in, because you made me go to some school where I know no one, which by the way, I really fucking hate." Percy hadn't realized how loud he had been shouting. Hell, Calypso probably heard him, and she lived three doors down.

Poseidon just glared at Percy. It was a long glare, as sea green eyes met sea green eyes. According to everyone, Percy was the spitting image of Poseidon as a teenager, and his eyes were no exception. They were one of the many things Percy inherited from his deeply dislikable dad. The father son stare contest was ended when Poseidon faced away, before looking back, his face emotionless. No anger, no hatred, no love.

"Next time call your mother," he said, completely deadpan. I don't want to have to wait four hours again. Understood?" He pointed at Percy, cocking his eyebrow as he talked. Percy nodded, which was good enough for his father. Without another word, Poseidon walked to the door, stopping only to pat Percy on the shoulder. No doubt he thought it was affectionate, fatherly, but Percy just wished he'd leave. Then, in one second, the door slammed shut, and the room was silent.

The silence hung in the room, neither Percy nor Sally daring to move. It was like they expected Poseidon to burst back in or something. Then, Sally let out a huge sigh of relief as she walked into the kitchen.

"Mom," Percy started, "I'm sorry I didn't-" Sally cut him off.

"I know Percy, I'm just glad you're home safe."

"I would've been home sooner if I'd known he was waiting, that's all." he assured her.

"Percy," his mother sighed, "I'm very tired, and I just want to go to sleep now. I'll see you in the morning." And with that, Sally Jackson trotted off to bed. Percy felt so bad. His mother didn't deserve to be spoken to the way his father had done. She'd been nothing but supportive of him, she'd allowed him to try and be a part of his son's life, even if he was really bad at it, and she put up with a lot of his shit. But Percy also knew that his mother was frustrated at him. After all, this was mostly all his fault. He should've just called, even if his father hadn't been waiting for him, just so his mother knew he was safe. Maybe if he hadn't been so distracted by Annabeth…

Annabeth. Why could he not stop thinking about her? This wasn't like him at all. Her curly blonde hair, the feel of her body, her strikingly beautiful grey eyes. No, he had to get her out of his mind. He had to kick her out, because he knew he couldn't think straight otherwise. And he only knew one way that he could clear his head. Without a second thought, Percy left the apartment and walked down the row of apartments, exactly three doors down, and knocked on the door.

"Percy, you alright?" Calypso stuck her head around the door. She was wearing a simple, thin white sundress, and the look on her face was one of slight concern. Percy didn't usually come round at half past twelve at night.

"Yeah. You busy? I want to cash in my rain check." Calypso's face lit up, she was clearly delighted, having hardly seen Percy all week.

"No, come on in." She let him past her and into the apartment. It was practically identical to Percy's except much messier. "Dad's out, what a surprise, so it's just us." Turning to face Percy, Calypso was met with the familiar feel of his lips crashing against hers. They made their way to Calypso's bedroom, another familiar place to Percy, their lips never parting. Percy knew that he'd have to explain some of his reasoning behind this visit afterwards; after all, it wasn't often he came over after midnight to 'hang out'. But for now, he was lost in the moment, trying to push the grey-eyed blonde girl invading his thoughts out of his mind. He heard Calypso stifle a moan as they fell onto her bed, before ripping each other's clothes off. Percy needed this, badly.

* * *

He awoke the next morning in his own bed, having left Calypso's at around two. He never stayed the night with her, because that would mean they had a level of commitment to their relationship, when it was really just mindless sex. Of course he had stayed for a bit, talking about their issues. Percy told her about his argument with his father, and she ranted to him about her emotionally distant father, Atlas, who never ever seemed to be around. He hadn't been home last night. Percy assumed that when he saw him in the park, he had just been heading out, either to business or a woman. Honestly, Percy didn't care too much, but he knew it affected Calypso.

Eventually, Percy left and came back to the comfort of his own bed. His plan had worked, because for the rest of the night, he hadn't thought about Annabeth. It was like she had been completely erased from his mind for a few hours. But now he was awake, she was all he could think about again. It concerned him, because Percy wasn't the best guy when it came to feelings. He tended to keep them bottled up until they went away, and they usually did in the end. Maybe that would be the case with Annabeth. Despite that, Percy knew he'd have to face her eventually, and while part of him just wanted to avoid it, another part, a much deeper part, wanted to see her again, to talk to her, to kiss her.

Snap out of it, he thought to himself. The clock by his bed told Percy the time was 11:46. Hey, it was Saturday, he was allowed a lie in. But he couldn't lie in bed much longer, avoiding his problems. By midday, Percy was showered and dressed, and standing in the kitchen, pouring himself cereal. Sally Jackson was at work, but she had left a note for Percy on the kitchen table.

**Your father wants to speak to you today, he told me to tell you to find him. Mom.**

Great, more time with Poseidon. He probably wanted to talk to him about whatever he was round yesterday to talk to him about, y'know, before he stormed out in a furious rage. Well, Percy didn't really want to keep him waiting long. He finished his bowl and walked to the door, grabbing his jacket before leaving the apartment, locking the door behind him.

The walk to the farthest block of flats, where Poseidon lived, was not long, and Percy was there within minutes. There was a surprising lack of people around today, so there had been no reason to stop and chat. As he reached the door of his father's apartment, he nodded his greeting to the guy who always stood outside, kind of like a bodyguard, before knocking.

"It's open." He heard the muffled yell from inside, his father's voice, before he entered.

Percy walked in to the familiar room, and saw his father, and four other guys, sitting round a table, playing what appeared to be poker. Percy knew two of them by name, and the other two he recognized. There was Atlas, looking as imposing as ever, even sitting down, and to Poseidon's left sat Gabe Ugliano. Gabe, a man who had somehow gained the unfortunate nickname Smelly Gabe, was a short, pudgy, bald asshole of a guy, who just so happened to be one of Poseidon's closest friends. He wore a stained brown shirt and beach shorts, and from the looks of it, was winning a fair amount of money. Percy had never liked him. He used to live next door, but always gave Sally so much shit. He bothered them night and day, and finally, Poseidon forced him to move to a different block. The whole situation left Percy and his mom in Gabe's bad books, but there was little he could do about that.

"Percy? What are you doing here?" His father looked up from his hand at his son with confusion in his eyes.

"You… uh, mom said you wanted to talk to me?" Percy was getting slightly nervous; he didn't like that everyone in the room was staring at him. He saw a look of disdain in Gabe's eyes, as he looked up from his hand too.

"No, I told her that I wanted to talk to you after 3 o'clock" he said, rubbing his face with frustration. "Did she not tell you that?"

"No, she was at work, left a note that said you wanted to talk to me," he said, defending his mother. "I didn't want to keep you waiting," he added, seeing a small smirk on Atlas's face. Poseidon got up out of his seat and walked over to Percy, until they were face to face. To Percy's surprise, he didn't look angry at all, he was being quite passive.

"Ok, go back to your place, I'll come round as soon as I can. I want to talk to you about the school" he said, in a lower voice, so the others wouldn't hear. What did he want to talk about the school for? I'll find out later I guess, thought Percy. Just as he was about to walk out of the door, he heard Gabe shout from behind his dad, and it made Percy's blood boil.

"Tell your stupid fucking idiot mother to remember the time next time. You interrupted our game." Percy wasn't about to stand by while this fat piece of shit talked bad about his mom. Percy turned slowly, and went to launch himself at Gabe, shouting, "What did you fucking say?" No doubt he would've made some contact if Poseidon hadn't held him back.

"Calm down Percy!" Poseidon shouted as he pushed Percy back. Percy was red in the face, partly from rage, partly from embarrassment. All of his father's friends were laughing at him. Gabe had the biggest grin on his face.

"Ooh, I'm so scared Jackson," he taunted, "is Percy Jackson gonna hurt me?"

"Gabe," Poseidon warned, "stop it."

"What? It ain't my fault his mother's such an idiot. If she had any brains, she wouldn't be working in a fucking sweet shop everyday," he laughed, looking at the others, expecting them to laugh too. They, however, were all looking at Poseidon, waiting for his reaction. He seemed to not have one, and that made Percy angry again.

"Dad," Percy snapped, "are you gonna let him talk like that?" Poseidon had his eyes fixed on his son, before he talked.

"Percy, I'll talk to you later." It was clear he wanted Percy to leave, for whatever reason. Just as Percy was about to reluctantly oblige, Gabe shouted one more thing, and it made the room freeze.

"Yeah, run back to your fucking whore mother." You could hear the sound of everyone simultaneously holding their breath. Percy wanted to kill him, to run at him and beat the shit out of him, but before he could, his father reacted. But not in the way anyone expected.

"Gabe, how well do you know me?" he asked, no sign of malice in his voice whatsoever.

"Pretty well, why?" Now it was Gabe's turn to look bemused. Smelly Fucking Gabe.

"Can you tell me what I love most in the world?" It was a simple question, but something about the way Poseidon talked was beginning to sound off, as if he were being too polite.

"Um, money? Power? Control? All three of those are pretty good bets" Gabe answered. Poseidon just laughed under his breath, as if there was some private joke only he knew.

"All right, you three," he pointed to the other people around the table, "I want you to fold." He was talking about the game of poker they'd been playing. The others hesitantly looked at each other, before Poseidon repeated himself.

"Fold!" he said, louder. It wasn't a request; it was an order. There was a trace of danger in Poseidon's voice now. Quickly, the other three laid down their cards and sat back. Gabe was looking slightly worried now. Poseidon walked around the table, mirroring the movements of a lion hunting its prey.

"Gabe, show me your cards." Poseidon talked almost so quietly that you couldn't hear him. Gabe looked at him in shock, as if he'd just been slapped in the face. Percy wished he'd just get slapped in the face, but a part of him knew something worse was coming.

"What? Show you my cards? No, why would I fucking do that?" It was a fair argument; the whole point of poker was to not let anyone know what hand you had.

"Because I told you to. Now do it." Gabe stared at him for a minute, unsure of how to react. Percy imagined his dilemma. On the one hand, you could potentially lose the hand, or even lots of money, depending on how the next few minutes went, but on the other hand, refusing to do so would put you in the bad books of your boss, who happened to be prone to serious anger management issues. It looked like Gabe went with the former decision, as he slowly, reluctantly flipped his cards over. Poseidon stared at him.

"Ah, looks like you've got a King high, not very good. Planning on bluffing were you?" Gabe wasn't looking as Poseidon spoke, he seemed much more interested in his shoes. Poseidon, on the other hand, looked ecstatic.

"Well, you see Gabe, I have a pair of sevens, also not amazing, but better than yours. Now, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. You're going to go all in, and I'm going to take your money, understood?" Gabe's eyes shot up, and he stood up, eying up Poseidon.

"Are you fucking crazy? I got almost five grand, and you want me to lose on purpose?" Listen to me, you-" Poseidon angrily cut him off.

"No Gabe, you listen to me," he yelled, practically pushing Gabe back down into his seat, "you're going to go all in! Now fucking do it!" Percy was pretty sure that Gabe had begun to shake, probably in fear. He was also pretty sure he hadn't seen his dad this angry in years, and it was not something he felt like he should be present for, but he also couldn't leave, especially if it involved pain for Gabe.

Gabe nodded, and slowly pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table. The tension in the air was so thick, that you'd need more than just one knife to cut through it; you'd need the whole kitchen drawer. Not one of the other men in the room, Atlas included, had moved a muscle, but their eyes darted from Poseidon to Gabe like a tennis match, an extremely one sided tennis match. No one dared even breathe loudly. Once Gabe's chips were in the center, Poseidon pushed all of his chips into the middle too.

"Now Gabriel," Poseidon was feigning politeness, "show me what hand you have." Gabe dropped the cards onto the table, everyone of course already knowing what they were. "King high, ah well, better luck next time." Poseidon said mockingly, as he showed his pair of sevens. He collected the chips in the middle. From what Percy could tell, it was around eight grand. No wonder Gabe looked miserable. But if he thought his humiliation was over, he was certainly mistaken.

"Gabe, you named what you believed to be three things I love most in the world, and you are right, I do love all those things. Money, power and control. What I just did shows I have all three. I have money, thanks to you, around eight thousand dollars. I proved that I have power over you, because you did exactly what I said, and I also had complete control of the whole situation. You see Gabe, money, power and control. But you left off one thing, the one thing I love more than anything else. Well, technically it's two things. My sons, Percy and Tyson." Percy stopped breathing for a second. Did his father just say he loved him? Had he heard him right? Percy couldn't recall his father ever saying that to him before. Well, he hadn't actually said it to him, he'd said it to Gabe, but he'd still said it nonetheless. Poseidon continued, not even glancing at Percy.

"I love my two sons more than anything else, and you insulted my oldest son's mother. That woman, regardless of my relationship with her, will always have a place in my heart, because she gave me my first son." Gabe had gone as white as a sheet of paper by this point. It looked like he wanted to defend himself, but knew he should probably keep his mouth shut.

"And Gabe," Poseidon stepped closer to the quivering, pathetic excuse for a gangster, "when you called her stupid, an idiot, _a fucking whore,_ you didn't just piss off my son, you pissed me off. You insulted the woman who brought my son into the world, and has raised him. I can't let that go unpunished." By now, he was towering over the shorter man, who was standing and breathing rather heavily.

"Boss, please…" Gabe began, but Poseidon held up a hand, silencing him.

"Gabe, I'm sorry, but you should've known better." Everyone in the room, including Percy, knew what was coming next. Then, in one swift movement that took all of half a second, Poseidon's fist connected with Gabe's cheek. The short man stumbled, but as he again turned his head, he was met with another fist. Before anyone could even move, Gabe was on the floor, Poseidon above him, delivering a torrent of punches to the head of the smaller man. Percy began to move forward, but saw Atlas hold up a hand to stop him, his face completely serious. Poseidon was shouting at this point, the sound of every punch seemingly echoing through the room. Thud. Thud. Thud. Poseidon was punching his body now, Gabe's face looking nearly unrecognizable from cuts and blood, not a lot, but enough. Poseidon pulled at Gabe's shirt, lifting him into a sitting position, before grabbing a beer bottle and smashing it over the bloodied man's head. His father stood up, and looked directly at Percy. He could see the blood on his father's knuckles. The only sounds in the room were Gabe's moans and Poseidon's panting.

"You three, drag him into the other room. We're not done." He looked at them. Atlas immediately got up and dragged Gabe through the door at the far end of the room, with the other two men following. Percy almost didn't want to think about what further punishment Gabe would receive.

Poseidon walked up to him, blood still on his hands, and looked at Percy sympathetically.

"I'm sorry… son, that you had to see that" he said awkwardly. He never usually had to explain his acts of violence.

"It's alright… dad." Percy replied, just as awkwardly. He rarely called Poseidon dad.

"So I'll talk to you later, about school." Poseidon stated

"Yeah, I'll see you later I guess." His father patted him lightly on the shoulder, just like he'd done yesterday, before Percy turned around to walk out.

"Oh, and Percy?" Poseidon added, "Don't tell your mother about this, ok?"

"Sure thing" Percy replied, quietly. He could understand his father not wanting his mother finding out about this: Gabe's insults, his beat down of the aforementioned Gabe.

Percy left his father's apartment and stood outside the door for a minute. He said goodbye to the large bodyguard and began to walk down the stairs. One thought running through his mind.

'_My father said he loves me. He actually said it." _

It was a big deal to Percy. It was like the situation with the thugs in the alley. As violent as it was, it was actually proof that Poseidon was capable of love, in his own weird way. Percy briefly wondered if Tyson, his half brother, ever worried about things like this. Either way, today had taken a strange turn, but one that Percy welcomed.

'_My dad said he loves me."_

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. This update is slightly later, but I've had a very busy week, so I hope a longer chapter makes up for that. I know that there wasn't really any Percabeth, but I wanted to focus on Poseidon. **

**I'm going to be going on holiday soon to America, so there most likely won't be another update until early September, sorry for that, but I'll try my best. **

**R&R!**


	10. Chapter 10

-Annabeth-

As she sat in Luke's garden, alone, Annabeth thought back to the night's events. She had kissed Percy Jackson. She wanted to crack a smile at that memory, but honestly she was too deep in her own thoughts to bother. She had kissed Percy Jackson. Those words kept running through her head, she had kissed Percy Jackson, always followed by the same question. Why? That was a question she had no reply to, she couldn't think of the right answer. Every excuse she seemed to come up with seemed wrong. She assumed that deep down she did know why, and just wasn't being honest with herself, something she did a lot, but then, she worried that even that wasn't true. She was beginning to wonder why she did or said anything anymore, and it was worrying to Annabeth.

She had always been so confident. Even when her mother was pressuring her, she had always fulfilled what was wanted of her, and had done so with such efficiency and confidence that there was no comparison in the school. She had been top, Annabeth Chase, popular and intelligent. So what was wrong? Lately, she had been so out of character, so unlike herself that it worried her. No one else noticed, she was great at hiding things from regular people, but she knew. It had been ever since Percy Jackson waltzed into her life, but it couldn't be him, could it? He had barely spoken to her before tonight. Perhaps it was the years of expectation her mother placed upon her finally crashing down. Every year, Athena appeared to intensify the pressure on her daughter. Maybe it was all finally getting to Annabeth. Of course, there was always the possibility that she was plain crazy. Honestly, Annabeth had no idea about anything for certain. There was only one thing she was one hundred percent sure of, she had kissed Percy Jackson.

And Silena knew. She recognized the look on Silena's face, and for the rest of the party, up until everyone left, Silena had been giving Annabeth knowing glances. No doubt Annabeth could expect the Spanish Inquisition some time in the near future, but she didn't mind too much. Silena wasn't much of a threat, and there was no real worry on Annabeth's part that she'd found out. Silena knew pretty much every secret involving people in the school; she simply adored gossip. Therefore, her having dirt on someone wasn't new, Annabeth was just thankful that her and Silena were so close. She knew her best friend wouldn't tell anyone except Thalia, and Thalia wouldn't tell anyone either. Besides, it was better Silena and Thalia knew than Luke. She was in Luke, her boyfriend's, house and had kissed someone else. He would have been furious if he'd found out, although then again, he was so out of it on drugs and alcohol that maybe he wouldn't have even processed it. But Annabeth knew that that was wishful thinking.

Speaking of Luke, he was inside the house, probably taking extra long in the bathroom, and everyone else had gone home about 20 minutes ago, except for Percy, who left a good hour before everyone else. The time was around ten to one, and Annabeth found herself in Luke's enormous garden, thinking about her kiss with another boy. Funny that. It had been a good kiss though. No, that wasn't the right way to describe it. It was a fantastic kiss. It made Annabeth's heart skip a beat, stop completely and go at one hundred miles an hour all at once. It was the type of kiss she and Luke had never shared. And that just made her feelings towards Percy more confusing. Did she like him like that? Was there some deep connection between them? All the signs seemed to say yes, yet Annabeth wanted to scream no. She didn't want to have 'feelings' for anyone, because that would mean facing them, and Annabeth didn't face feelings well. That was the whole reason she went out with Luke, she had no feelings for him, and he helped her become more popular, it was perfect.

But being with Percy had felt so good. She couldn't help it. There was a part of her that wanted to experience that feeling again, that's why she had not told him that it wouldn't happen again.

'_I'd like it to.' _

That was what she'd said, and in the moment at least, she had meant it, all four words. Looking back, it was probably not the best thing to say. What if Percy expected it to happen again? What if he thought she wanted to be with him?

"_But you do want to be with him." _

That stupid voice was back, chattering away in the back of her mind, telling her what she didn't want to admit. No. I don't want to be with him, Annabeth told herself, attempting to silence that voice, yet to no avail.

"_You can't get rid of me Annabeth." _

It seemed to mock her. Stop it, she thought, just leave me alone. No doubt she would've carried on this silent argument in her head had Luke not walked through the large French doors, looking very exhausted. He slumped down in the chair next to her, and reached out his hand for Annabeth to take. She did, and they simply sat there for a minute, holding hands, saying nothing. Annabeth was actually quite uncomfortable, it felt like Luke was gripping her hand slightly too tightly. That was strange; she never felt like that when Luke held her hand before. No doubt it had something to do with her messed up head and Percy Jackson.

"You have fun tonight?" Luke asked, turning his head slightly to look at his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I guess." She replied, looking away from him. She didn't particularly want to talk to him; she'd enjoyed the silence.

"You were pretty quiet, that's all. Something up?" he rubbed her hand slightly, trying to be comforting, but Annabeth just wanted him to let go. It was strange, she suddenly didn't want attention from him, and wasn't making eye contact with him. Was this guilt? Luke was just trying to be the comforting boyfriend, yet all his attempts were simply frustrating Annabeth.

"No, nothings up." She assured him, turning to face him with a semi-forced smile "I'm just tired I guess. Long week." That answer seemed to satisfy Luke. He leaned back into his chair, closing his eyes. They sat in silence for another minute. Annabeth knew she'd have to leave soon, and was just waiting for the right moment.

"Percy's awesome, isn't he?" Luke's statement caught Annabeth completely off guard; Percy had been on her mind so much lately that it was a bit of a shock to her when anyone brought him up in actual conversation.

"Um, yeah, I guess." Annabeth replied, trying to sound like she didn't care about him and wasn't completely nervous. The last thing she wanted was her boyfriend thinking anything strange or out of the ordinary was going on between the two of them.

"Well, I'm just thinking," Luke began, "he joined a week ago from Goode, and when I heard that I thought we'd have a tough kid who hated all of us for being rich and started fights, you know? I expected him to be really confrontational. But he's actually a great guy. He gets on with everyone, the group love him. He is tough, don't get me wrong, but it's not like he'd hurt any of us. We're all friends now. Plus the way he rolls…" Annabeth stopped listening to what Luke was saying, it was mostly along the lines of Percy being awesome at football and rolling joints and tough and just all around amazing, but Annabeth wasn't such an idiot. She knew Luke was deluded if he thought Percy considered any of them friends. Maybe Beckendorf, and perhaps she herself was slightly more than an acquaintance, but there was no way that Percy thought more of any of the rest of them after only a week of knowing them. But of Luke wanted to believe that Percy was Mr. Fantastic then Annabeth would let him. Right now, Percy was the last topic she wanted to be talking about to anyone, let alone her boyfriend.

Once Luke had finished his speech on the amazing qualities of Percy Jackson, Annabeth knew that it was time to leave. Just as she stood up, Luke reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked, sounding surprised that she was considering leaving at all.

"Luke, it's just gone one AM, I want to sleep tonight." She didn't even bother hiding the frustration in her voice. She wanted to be in the comfort of her own bed.

"But don't you want to, y'know, stay the night?" he inquired, standing up to face her. The look in his eye suggested that he'd been expecting this all night, for her to leave tomorrow morning. Maybe a few months ago she would've gladly spent the night, but right now, she could think of nothing she wanted less.

"No, I'd rather sleep in my bed tonight." The insulted and hurt look on Luke's face didn't escape her notice; she just chose to ignore it. If he was going to be a baby about this then that was fine, but Annabeth would definitely be waking up in her own bed tomorrow morning.

Just as she was about to turn, Luke spun her back around and pressed his lips to hers. It lingered for a few seconds, and although it was in no way different to any of their previous kisses, this one felt off. It was probably a result of her kiss with Percy. That had lit a fire inside of her that Luke could never match, and while right now she didn't want to _be with _Percy, she also didn't want to be with Luke. She broke the kiss when she felt Luke's hands creeping lower down her back, beginning to slide into her jeans.

"What?" he exclaimed exasperatedly. "What's gotten into you?" Annabeth tried to push all the frustration she felt to the back of her mind. Faking her way through the next few seconds would be easy.

"Baby, I'm just tired." She told him, wrapping her arms around his neck, giving him innocent puppy dog eyes. "We can try and meet up at the weekend, alright?" Luke nodded slowly, mesmerized by Annabeth's eyes and sudden affection. Luke was almost too easy to manipulate at times. She gave him a quick peck on the lips before making her way to his front door. Luke had slumped back down into his garden chair, and it wouldn't surprise her if he fell asleep right there. By now, she was sober enough to drive. Without looking back at Luke's house, Annabeth got into her Porsche and sped out of the driveway, towards her house.

* * *

The sun broke through the crack in the curtain, delicately illuminating the room, not blaring sunlight, but enough to be able to see, and under a messy pile of duvets and blankets, Annabeth Chase slept. She always slept in on weekends; enjoying the small comfort it brought her. While asleep, real problems couldn't affect her. There was no pressure to be perfect while asleep, she didn't have to be anyone except her. She could dream, and whether they were normal or strange or even scary, they were an entertaining break from life. As the hours passed, Annabeth began to stir. Unless there was an event on or an emergency, Frederick and Athena Chase never woke their daughter up within the hours of Saturday of Sunday, perhaps small compensation for working her so hard. Then again, they often weren't home to do so. 'Work never rests' was a favourite quote of Athena's.

The noises from downstairs were what eventually made Annabeth arise from her slumber. It sounded like Bobby and Matthew doing something, and their dad was trying to control them. Annabeth sat up in bed and stretched, yawning as she did. She swung her legs out of the bed and trudged to the bathroom, ready to enjoy her favourite time of the day, the shower. Thinking no one to be upstairs, you can imagine Annabeth's surprise when the bathroom door opened and out came her mother, Athena, wrapped in a towel.

"Mom, I thought you were at work?" Annabeth asked in surprise. There was very rarely a day when Athena wasn't in at the office. On Saturday, like any other da, she was usually out of the house before seven in the morning. She stared at her daughter, as if wondering who the hell she was. That hurt Annabeth. She knew that it was just how her mother was, but it hurt nonetheless.

"Well, I decided to stay home today. It isn't that busy at the office, Malcolm can handle it. It's good to see you up." She said curtly, examining Annabeth up and down. Her face never broke from its indifferent look. Quickly, she turned and walked towards the staircase, up to her room. Annabeth was left stunned for a moment; racking her brains for the last time she'd seen her mother on a Saturday morning. And she'd been so cold, almost uncaring. It was as if she was judging Annabeth even now. With a sigh, Annabeth made her way into the bathroom, towards the steamy shower and the relaxation it would bring her, wondering if there would ever be a moment where she didn't feel like a stranger around her own mother.

Pulling the designer t-shirt over her head, Annabeth contemplated what she would do this weekend. She had no homework at all, just two days to relax. But she had to do something, because not doing so meant that her mind would wander, and when it did that, it eventually found the same destination every time. Mom, insecurity, pressure, Percy. She had to do something to dull the nagging voices in her head. She knew that Silena and Thalia would probably contact her mid afternoon; it was a common Saturday occurrence, but she had to fill the void of time between now and then. Family time really didn't sound appealing, so Annabeth made the decision to work her way through the pile of Books-To-Read. Eyeing her magnificent bookshelf, she moved past the large collection of books she had read to the unread ones. She reached for the first one she saw, We Were Liars, and pulled it from its place on her shelf. She had purchased it in the airport on the way to Italy, but never got round to reading it. Well that would change.

In Annabeth's eyes, nothing could ever beat a book. Books were your best friends, there to cheer you up when you were down. They could make you cry and weep and ache, but you'd love them all the same for doing so, because you know that their intention is never to hurt you, they only want to bring you joy and intelligence. When you are alone, or if you are abandoned, books will stand by your side. They don't keep secrets form you; they aren't deceitful. They are honest with you, literally like an open book. They hold no prejudices or beliefs. Annabeth had countless famous quotes about how important books were in her head that she lost track of who said what. Examining the blurb of We Were Liars, she read the first two lines.

_We are beautiful and privileged_

_We are cracked and broken_

Sounds familiar, Annabeth thought, realizing that description could perfectly match her at times. Deciding this was the one; she sat down on her bed and began.

Annabeth was up to page 76 when her mother entered her room, not bothering with the courtesy of knocking.

"Annabeth, I want to talk to you about school." She said, so matter-of-factly it was as if Annabeth not only had no choice, the whole universe was expecting this conversation to happen. The tone of her voice oozed with a sense of entitlement, a 'what I say goes' attitude. Annabeth placed a bookmark in her book; she had just been getting really into it, and locked eyes with her mother. Nothing could annoy her more than when someone interrupted her reading.

"What particular aspect of school would you like to talk about?" she replied, her voice laced with much more sarcasm than she intended. Her mother never changed her glare; that same indifferent look from earlier.

"Change that tone young lady." She snapped. "I want to talk about the new school year with you. In particular your approach towards it."

Annabeth was taken back a bit. She hadn't expected her day to turn out like this at all. Had her day really gone from reading a brilliant book in bed, to speaking about school with her strident mother? Was now really the best time?

"My approach? My approach?" Annabeth repeated herself, as if to check she'd heard properly.

"Yes Annabeth, your approach." Athena sounded frustrated now. "I do not believe that your attitude towards your education and future recently, particularly since the New Year, has been satisfactory. You go to parties and spend time with your friends when you should be studying. That is unacceptable"

This is unbelievable, Annabeth thought. Her attitude? Unacceptable? _Her attitude?_ Out of everyone in the school, no one worked harder than Annabeth. She persisted when others saw no reason, she never got an answer wrong, she always made sure her schoolwork was finished, on time and beyond satisfactory. All that, because her mother told her to do so, because for so long, Athena Chase had made it seem like Annabeth had no other option.

'A Chase doesn't quit.'

'A Chase always finished top.'

'A Chase is second to none.'

Years upon years of being told by her mother to work long and work hard, to work until she couldn't anymore. Work because mother said so, because what mother says, happens, because 'A Chase never stops working.' Years of these sayings, of these lessons and messages, and now what? Annabeth was being told she was not satisfactory, that she was unacceptable by the very woman who made her act this way.

"Are you actually serious?" the words escaped Annabeth's mouth before she could stop them. She instantly regretted them, but knew she meant it too.

"I beg your pardon?" Athena sounded offended and angry, as if someone had dared to question her for once.

"All I mean is that I work so hard already, that I just get a bit annoyed when you say I'm not working at all. That's all." Annabeth refused to make eye contact anymore, fearing whatever look may be in her mothers eyes.

"Well I have some news for you Annabeth, you do not work hard enough. I know about all your 'activities' with your friends, the nights you stay over with Thalia or Silena, the days you spend with Luke, or whatever his name was. Those are moments you are wasting. I mean look at you right now. Reading yes, but it's not a proper book is it, you won't learn anything from it, it won't help you in any way."

A rage was burning inside Annabeth, but she knew that it had to be reeled in, fast. She decided to let the jab at her book go, her mother didn't value young adult literature, or consider it proper literature, and that wasn't an argument Annabeth wanted to get into again.

"Mother," Annabeth spoke very calmly, and quite slowly, "I'm simply trying to have a social life. I want to have fun. I like my friends, I like my boyfriend." At that last part, she nearly faltered; seeing as it wasn't strictly true, but she wouldn't let her emotions about her love life get in her way right now.

"Annabeth, your social life, your friends, your boyfriend? None of them will help you get into Harvard or Yale, none of them will help you in the architecture business." Annabeth wanted to scream so loudly.

"_STOP CONTROLLING MY LIFE!" _her mental voice yelled, echoing throughout her head.

For as long as Annabeth could remember, Athena told her daughter that she would be an architect. That she would follow in her mother's footsteps; that she would go to a top university. But now, as she got older, Annabeth was beginning to think that she didn't want what her mother wanted for her. It wasn't that she didn't like architecture, it was still an interest, but Annabeth wanted to decide her own future. She wanted to actually be in charge, instead of just acting like she was, which she did throughout the school year. She'd felt like this for a while, but actually voicing this to her mother was a different story. They clearly didn't have the best relationship, and as much as her mother bothered her at times, Annabeth didn't want to completely break their relationship, and she was sure that saying she didn't want to follow a career in architecture would come dangerously close to doing that. But she'd have to bring it up at some point, wouldn't she? She couldn't just tiptoe around it forever, particularly in her final year of school.

"Did you ever consider that…" she had to say it, but she paused, dammit Annabeth, she thought, spit it out you coward. "Have you ever thought that… maybe I don't want any of that?" Annabeth spoke nervously, quite quietly. Her heart was racing. Her mother would surely kill her for even thinking like that. If the people in school could see her now, they'd be too shocked to move. The confident, assured and at times arrogant Annabeth Chase muttering her replies to someone, afraid of their reaction and desperate for their approval. Usually it was the other way round.

"Nonsense." Athena replied so quickly Annabeth almost missed it. She was so to-the-point. Her mother had brushed off her little attempt at gaining independence like it was nothing, and that infuriated Annabeth no end. Just as she was about to retort, defend herself, her mother continued talking, still in that same tone of voice that said 'what I say goes' she used so often.

"You will work harder than before this year Annabeth, you will utilize your full potential, and next year, you will be at an Ivy League College studying Architecture. There are no ifs or buts, nothing else to consider. That has been the plan since you could first walk and talk. How else will you follow in my footsteps? All this means that you won't have any time to mess around this year. That means less partying, less time frittered away with your friends. Do I make myself clear?"

Annabeth was left stunned, what an unexpected turn this day had taken. She wanted to scream and shout and tear down her mother's precious sense of entitlement. She wanted to attack her with words, to cut her and wound her with the power of the tongue, and destroy that part of her that felt like she could control her daughter's life. Was this why Athena had stayed home today? It honestly wouldn't have surprised Annabeth one bit.

"But mom-" she began, before being abruptly cut off for what felt like the umpteenth time.

"Do I make myself clear?" Athena repeated, much more slowly.

'Yes…" Annabeth almost didn't recognize the voice that came out of her mouth. She hated how weak and pathetic she sounded right now, but knew that there was no point fighting her mother.

"Good. Remember this conversation. The hard work will pay off eventually, but it starts immediately." And with that statement, Athena Chase exited the room, not sparing her daughter a second glance.

What kind of mother do I have? Annabeth thought. She briefly wondered of Athena was even capable of love, but nipped that thought in the bud. She had to believe her mother still loved her, that in some weird way, all of this, the pressure and expectations, were because her mother loved her. But if she expected Annabeth to stop her life in order to work hard she was wrong. No, she suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to leave the house, even just for a few hours. She wanted to talk to someone. Percy briefly crossed her mind, but she wasn't sure that was the best idea. Also, she had no way of contacting him. Silena and Thalia would have to do. Annabeth stood up, still holding her book, and began to climb out of the window, scribbling a note before she did. She had discovered she could leave the house this way when she was much younger, but it still worked. No doubt Athena would be furious of she left, but honestly, Annabeth wasn't afraid to face the music later. With that thought, she dropped down onto the lawn, and dialed Silena's number.

* * *

Annabeth was at Silena's house within 10 minutes. After calling to ask if she could come over, Silena had said yes and called Thalia over too. As Annabeth rung the doorbell, she realized she was shaking. Did her mother's words have that much of an impact on her, or was it simply the autumn chill slowly beginning to creep into the air. When the door opened, and the beautiful face of Silena Beauregard appeared, Annabeth lost whatever self control she'd had and threw herself at her best friend, her shaky arms wrapping around her midsection and shoulders. Silena hugged back, not saying a word. Annabeth wasn't crying, just shaking uncontrollably.

"Let's go up to my room." Silena whispered, and Annabeth nodded. In silence, they walked up the stairs, then turned and entered Silena's enormous bedroom.

The wallpaper was pink, the king sized bed had pink and purple sheets. Her window looked over the Japanese style garden. Her large mirror was surrounded with pictures of Silena with Annabeth and Thalia, and of course Beckendorf. There was a desk that was covered with beauty products, and there was definitely a smell of designer perfume in the air. A giant walk in wardrobe was open, with clothes strewn all over the place. Thalia was sitting on the floor, but she stood up immediately when Annabeth walked in. her grinning face turned to concern when she saw the state her friend was in. Annabeth sat down on Silena's unmade bed, and her two best friends sat down either side.

"Annie, what's the matter." It was Silena's voice, laced with worry. Even they rarely saw this side of Annabeth.

"Why are you holding a book?" Thalia asked. Annabeth looked down and realized she was still gripping her We Were Liars copy. Why had she kept hold of it?

"I don't know…" she muttered, almost too quiet to hear. She placed it onto the bedside table. The shaking had died down now, and she felt an arm wrap around her. Silena. Annabeth leaned into the embrace.

"Seriously, what happened?" Silena asked again. Annabeth knew she had to tell them. She hadn't expected to have her little breakdown, but she knew her best friends deserved the truth.

"I had a huge argument with my mom." She confided. "She told me that I had to work harder this year, because I had not been up to the standards of a Chase the last few years, or something along those lines. Told me no more partying, no more Luke, no more you guys." Annabeth watched their faces as they took in the information. Silena stayed quiet, but Thalia, ever the outspoken one, let her mind be known.

"That's complete fucking bullshit!" Annabeth laughed under her breth. It was a fair point, even if it was worded slightly badly. "Who works harder than you? Not either of us, that's for sure. Is she serious?" there was anger in her voice as she spoke, and Annabeth couldn't help but appreciate how willingly her friend would stand up for her. She did love these two.

"Yeah, but it's not like this is new. She's always wanted you to work hard hasn't she?" Silena spoke up. Both her and Thalia were fairly well informed about the pressure Athena Chase put on her daughter.

"Well yeah, but it's the fact that she doesn't seem to notice, and constantly expects more of me. She wants to control my entire future." Annabeth said.

"She still wants you to be an architect?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah. I tried to tell her it's not necessarily what I want anymore, but she was having none of it. It was like I hadn't said anything at all." Annabeth remembered how quickly her mother ignored her, and she felt frustration grow again. "I don't know, I guess it just got to me today, that's all." She sighed, and fell back onto the bed. There, she stared at Silena's ceiling, and marveled at how simple it was. Plain white, no pattern what so ever. Why couldn't her life be that simple?

"Annie, you'll be fine." She heard Silena's comforting voice "We'll make sure of it." Suddenly, Silena was lying next to Annabeth, smiling. Soon, Thalia did the same. All three of them started laughing for no apparent reason, and for the second time in the past few minutes, Annabeth had an overwhelming sense of love for these two girls.

Now Silena was a gossip fiend, so Annabeth knew it was only a matter of time before she brought up what she had walked in on yesterday, and as if on cue…

"So Annie, did you enjoy yourself yesterday?" Silena's question was innocent enough, but was laced with a suggestive tone that made it obvious what she was referring to, Annabeth and Percy.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that…" she replied, trying not to give anything away.

"It sure seemed that way." Silena said, grinning wide.

"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Thalia interrupted, but Silena ignored her.

"Seriously Annie, did I walk in on what I think I walked in on?" Annabeth nodded tentatively, a small smile across her lips as she remembered the feel of Percy's on hers.

"Seriously, what are you two talking about?" Thalia was trying to get their attention, but it had no effect on Silena.

"Oh My God Annie!" Silena practically screamed. "What were you thinking?" She would've answered had Thalia not shouted over them.

"Will one of you _please_ tell me what you are talking about!?" she was sitting up now, a look of annoyance on spread across freaking her face.

"Annabeth and Percy kissed last night." Silena said, breaking the silence.

Now that someone had finally said it out loud, it felt like a load taken off of Annabeth's shoulders. All three girls sat in silence on Silena's bed for a minute.

"Did you really?" Thalia finally broke the silence.

"Yes, I kissed Percy." Annabeth was saying that as much for herself as she was for her friends. Confirming, out loud, that she had kissed Percy Jackson.

"Why?" Thalia had just asked the million dollar question, the one Annabeth had asked herself constantly, yet still had no solid reply to.

"Do you like him?" Silena butted in, curiosity spread across her face. She was like a child on Christmas day.

"Yeah, I guess." She said, but then decided to open up, to be honest with her friends. "I feel like he and I have a connection, one that me and Luke just don't. I can't explain it, but he just seems to have this effect on me. Yesterday, I just had the sudden urge to kiss him, so I did. I don't regret it." Now that she had finally said that out loud, to other humans, and not just the crazy voices in her head, she felt better, more confident in her feelings. This was the Annabeth she enjoyed being.

"So do you want to, like, be with him?" Thalia asked, and that made Annabeth think long and hard. Did she? She had a good thing going with Luke, but it was nothing serious, and it hadn't made her feel the way kissing Percy had. Annabeth knew the honest answer. She had avoided it for as long as possible, never truly admitting it. But in the week he'd been in her life, Percy had made a bigger impact than Annabeth had ever thought anyone could make. She suddenly thought back to her first thoughts about the boy, how he intrigued her, and how she felt like he could add excitement to her dull life. That was what she wanted, and she knew it.

"Yeah, I think I do."

She wanted to be with Percy Jackson.

* * *

**A/N: As per, hope you enjoyed reading this. I know it's quite late, but as I said, I was on holiday so I hope this chapter makes up for it. Remember to review, and please tell me if there's anything you guys would like to see, it's always useful to get more ideas. I'm starting school again this week, so ****updates won't be as regular as they were in the holidays, but I'll try to get a new chapter at least once a week. **

**Has anyone read Percy Jackson: Greek Gods? What did you think? **

**The book We Were Liars is owned and written by E. Lockhart, not me. I'd really ****recommend you read it, it's brilliant. **


	11. Chapter 11

-Percy-

6:30 AM. The sound of the alarm clock echoes throughout the room, filling every corner with its high pitched ringing. However, the ringing doesn't last for long, as a hand slams down on top of the clock with such force you'd think the clock would break. A sleepy Percy Jackson sits up from his bed, stretching, yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Most teenagers crave the extra five minutes they get in bed, live for it, because to them those are the last five minutes of comfort they will get for 24 hours. This is not how Percy Jackson feels. Most days, he gets up as soon as he can, choosing not to stay in bed. It's not really his thing; he prefers to be up and active. Before he even considers leaving his room, he drops to the floor, to complete his daily exercises.

This is Percy's daily routine. Every morning, the same steps, over and over, for years. There are even handprints on the same spot on the carpet where Percy does his press ups, 50 of them in total every day. He uses the time to clear his head, instead focusing on the strength in his lean body, and the counting. While he is on the ground, there is nothing in his head except numbers.

_Twenty six… twenty seven… twenty eight…_

No problems or worries, no Poseidon, no Goode, no Annabeth. Just the numbers, and maintaining his breathing.

_Thirty eight… thirty nine… forty… _

It was calming, yet also necessary. If you weren't tough on the Olympus Estate, you weren't going to have the best of times. Percy was strong, much stronger than he looked. That had been evident when he'd played football the previous week. On more than one occasion someone underestimated Percy, and ended up on the floor, completely outmuscled.

_Forty eight… forty nine… fifty..._

Done with the press-ups, onto the sit-ups, all part of the routine. When Percy had first begun this little pre day work out, it had practically drained him, but now it was all second nature. There were times when he would work on other parts of his body, arms, legs, back. But he did this every day, even weekends. Hell, he wouldn't leave his room on Christmas morning until he'd worked out. If he didn't spend that 10 minutes in the morning, his whole day felt strange, off kilter.

When he was finally done with the sit-ups, Percy stood up, and made his way to the bathroom. He could hear commotion in the kitchen, no doubt his mother making some kind of lunch for herself. She had no idea what had happened over the weekend, how Poseidon had made a punching bag out of Gabe in front of Percy's eyes. As his father requested, Percy hadn't told his mother about it, but that moment had been on his mind for the rest of the weekend. He could still see Gabe, bruised and bloodied, sprawled across the floor and gasping for air. Percy could still see the spots of blood appearing on the carpet, and he could hear Gabe's cries. He remembered every word his father had said to Gabe building up to it, and he remembered he tension in the room. But most of all, he remembered the look on his father's face, a look of loathing, as if Gabe's words offended him personally. That was Percy's favourite thing about it all. Forget the fact that he should be disturbed by what his father had done, violence was no surprise to Percy anymore, but the fact that his father had, even for a second, shown love for his son was the one thing Percy couldn't stop thinking about. He had often wondered if his father actually loved him, and moments like that made him think he did.

* * *

Once he was washed and ready for the day, Percy walked out of his apartment, saying goodbye to his mother as he did. With his bag slung over his shoulder, he walked to the gate of the Olympus Estate, where a certain short, gloomy boy was waiting for him. Nico Di Angelo.

"Perce, I wanna talk to you!" he called out, stepping closer. Percy took a second to take in Nico's appearance. He had on scruffy jeans and an old, black top. His hair was long and scraggly, as usual, and he himself was as pale and pasty as ever. There was however one distinct change. He had a huge black eye, and it looked pretty fresh.

"Damn Nico, what the hell happened?" Percy replied, not bothering to hide the surprise in his voice. A look of frustration briefly passed over Nico's face, but it disappeared just as quickly as he broke into a smile at the sight of his cousin.

"This? Nothing. Little fight, that's all." Nico was careful to avoid Percy's eyes, which upset Percy slightly. It was obvious Nico was not telling him something, and it made Percy miss the times when they'd been thick as thieves. Since the summer, that had deteriorated.

"Well if we're gonna talk, can we walk and do it, can't be late." Percy asked.

"Man, don't tell me you're worried about being late? What have they done to you?" Nico looked, and sounded, genuinely worried. Percy wasn't sure how to reply. It was true, at Yancy, he had one of the worst punctuality records, but back then he'd had friends who were late with him. He didn't really have that at Goode, so he never felt inclined to be rebellious.

"Can we walk or not?" Percy responded, trying not to sound impatient. Nico nodded, and the made their way down the street.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Percy asked. There was no point engaging in small talk.

"Well it's actually about the whole new school thing. I'm worried that you'll change too much" Nico said, which took Percy aback a bit. Nico didn't seem like the type of person who really thought about this a lot.

"What d'you mean?" Percy was genuinely curious. Nico just concentrated on the sidewalk, not looking up at all.

"Well we haven't hung out all week, and I'm worried you'll change without even realizing it. I don't want us to not talk to each other, or for you to make new friends. I mean, look at Beckendorf, he completely forgot us." Nico spoke with nervousness, but also passion. It was evident he meant every word. There had been very few times when Nico had opened up to Percy, and none over the last three or so years. That was just how he was.

"You don't have to worry about that. There aren't a lot of people there I get on with anyway." Percy felt a slight amount of guilt at that, seeing as it wasn't strictly true. He did actually get on with some people in the group, even if they weren't classed as friends.

"I just don't want you to drift away from the rest of us, that's all. You're family." Nico still wouldn't look up. This was probably new territory for him, opening up.

"Don't worry about it, I still live in the same area, like the same things, I just have a different school now." Percy felt an air of awkwardness creeping over them. He was almost thankful that he had to get to Goode quickly.

They walked until they reached Goode, talking about nothing really important. It was definitely less awkward. But now they both stood in the shadow of the huge, modern, expensive school.

"So this is the hellhole is it?" Nico pointed out sarcastically, earning a foul look from a passing girl, causing him to snicker.

"Look at them all Perce. Can you believe you actually go to school with these fuckers?" Nico was definitely speaking louder than normal. He probably wanted a fight. Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from behind them.

"Percy, over here." Percy turned his head to see Luke waving him over.

"Are you not gonna go over to your new friends?" Nico said mockingly.

Percy was in a very awkward situation. He knew Nico meeting the entire group was probably not the best idea, in fact anyone really. Yet he couldn't leave Nico for them could he? That would just be him doing exactly what Nico feared he would. He was now standing in one spot like cheese at fourpence, until he felt Nico tap his shoulder, and begin walking towards the group.

"C'mon Percy," that mocking tone still present in his voice, "introduce me to your friends." Percy sighed and reluctantly led the way, through the expensive cars to the spot where Luke and the guys were standing. Everyone was there, except for Annabeth and Thalia.

"Hey Percy, who's this?" Luke asked, as everyone turned their gaze to the short kid with the black eye they'd never seen before, looks of caution on their faces. There was no way this could go well.

"This is Nico, my cousin…" Percy said, slightly awkwardly. He turned to face Nico, but saw his cousin's eyes transfixed on one person, Beckendorf. Of course. Nico hadn't liked the idea that Beckendorf was a rich kid now, no doubt feeling betrayed. Suddenly, Percy just wanted to get Nico out of here. Nico could be volatile at the best of times, but if he was angry, and it was for a personal reason, he was a ticking time bomb. Percy half expected him to forgive Beckendorf as soon as they were face to face, as Grover had said, but something told him that that was wishful thinking.

The whole group was suddenly aware of the small staring contest going on. Beckendorf had looked quite happy, but that expression faded when he saw the look of malice in Nico's eyes.

"Nico…" Percy muttered under his breath, as a warning. That one word was all he needed to say. He knew Nico was ready to flip out, and Nico knew he knew, but the group didn't. They were, however, suddenly aware that something was wrong, that this boy was angry.

"Nico," Percy leaned in and whispered, loud enough for only his cousin to hear, "maybe you should go." He didn't want Nico thinking he was rejecting him, but he also didn't want him starting a fight ten minutes before school.

Nico nodded slowly, and began to turn around. It probably would've been nothing, if Beckendorf had not foolishly chosen to speak up.

"Nico, it's good to see you." He called out. Nico stopped in his tracks, before turning around as fast as lightning and charging for the larger boy. Nico's fist made contact with Beckendorf's cheek, despite at least half a foot of height difference. Suddenly, there was chaos. All the boys surged forward, suddenly intent on hurting Nico. Beckendorf was attempting to hit back, but Nico was too fast. Silena screamed, some of the other girls ran forward to help and all the while, Nico was shouting "ten Years?! Ten fucking years and it's _good to see me?!_" in between punches. It wasn't actually all that different from the incident with Poseidon and Gabe. Percy was frozen for a moment, stunned by the sudden turn of events. However, when he saw Jason's fist connect with Nico's ribs, he jumped into action.

Without so much as a second thought, he sprinted towards the heart of it all, and smashed his fist into Jason's abdomen. Then he punched him on the nose, before turning to hit one of Stoll brothers. Despite the obvious number difference, Percy and Nico seemed to be winning; after all, they were the only two with experience. After about 30 more seconds, Percy saw an opportunity and dragged Nico back, out of the circle and towards the school gate. When they were a safe distance away, he stopped, and he and Nico turned to face the gang. Percy saw Beckendorf holding parts of his body, clearly in pain. Jason looked horrible, but other than that, everyone else just looked a bit scruffy. They all, of course, had shocked looks on their faces. A crowd had gathered round them, and about thirty people were watching the events unfold. Luke stepped forward, and spoke up.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing Percy? What just happened?" he looked offended, angry and bitter. Percy honestly had no reply. Backing up Nico in a fight was second nature to him by now; instincts had just kicked in. Nico chose to speak up, though not in reply to Luke. He looked directly at Beckendorf and practically yelled,

"You say that after ten years?! You didn't try to keep in touch once! Not once! You're lucky I don't fuck up your disloyal ass more. Fuck you!" A silence followed his words; only the traffic in the background could be heard. Nico turned and walked out of the gate. Suddenly all eyes were on Percy. He had just practically attacked his so-called friends, and they would no doubt want answers. This kinda ruined their whole dynamic. He knew he had to say something, but he had no idea what. His fist still ached, and he was also slightly out of breath, but he thought about Nico's reasoning behind it all. Beckendorf had made no attempts to contact them for ten years! He had the means, but he chose not to.

"You should've tried Beckendorf," he finally muttered, "even a lousy phone call." As if on cue, the bell for the start of school went. On with the day eh?

* * *

It was definitely one of the more awkward school days in Percy's life. In all of his lessons, people were throwing glances his way, whispering, gesturing. For the most part, Percy ignored them, but he still couldn't help the annoyance that rose up in him after a while. Suddenly, he was right back to being the new kid, the outsider. Not that it bothered him too much; after all, they'd attacked Nico. Percy was defending family, something he was sure any one of them would do too. When Jason and Luke walked into Chemistry class, Percy wasn't oblivious to the spiteful looks they sent his way. Chemistry was just before lunch, and Percy was honestly not sure what he would do this lunchtime. He couldn't exactly walk over to them and act as if nothing had happened, and he sure as hell wasn't apologizing. Percy really wasn't paying attention to anything Mr. White was saying, until he heard his name called out.

"Percy Jackson?" the bald man standing at the front of the class called out. Quickly, Percy snapped out of his daydreaming state and raised his hand.

"At the back, sir" he replied.

"The Principal wants to see you" he said, before carrying on explaining covalent bonds, or something like that.

It was certainly not the first time Percy had heard those words uttered, not by a long shot, but something about this time was different. This time, Percy knew he could be in real trouble. After all, what could Mr. D want other than to talk about the fight? He remembered Mr. D's warning to him on the first day about his behaviour. Percy thought he could keep out of trouble longer than a week, but evidently not. Everyone stared at him as he left the class, Mr. White still drabbling on.

The corridor was completely empty as Percy made his way down it. Every door was closed, lessons midway through. When he finally reached the Principal's office, he knocked on the door, and waited for a response. He was actually nervous at school, for the first time in years, and what was probably a few seconds felt like minutes, before he heard Mr. D call him in. Slowly, he opened the door, and saw Mr. D sitting behind his desk, looking incredibly bored, and Beckendorf opposite him, bruised faced and miserable looking.

"Ah Percy, good." Mr. D looked up, and gestured to a seat next to Beckendorf. "Please take a seat." Percy slowly stepped into the office, and sat opposite the fat Principal. He was trying to look like he didn't care, but he wasn't sure he was doing so well.

"So Percy, you aren't stupid, you know why you're here right?" He never broke eye contact with Percy. Mr. D was definitely a different type of Principal to the one from Yancy. He didn't sugar coat anything, and he honestly seemed pretty tired of the whole 'teaching' thing.

"The fight this morning?" Percy replied quietly.

"Clever, not indicating you had anything to do with it, I like it" Mr. D exclaimed. Percy remembered being told, by this man, that he may be the most interesting student he'd had for a while. Percy was aware that Beckendorf was right next to him, yet he hadn't moved at all since Percy entered, staring aggressively at a single spot on the wall.

"But in all seriousness Percy, the fight is an issue." He paused, and looked at Beckendorf, before speaking to him.

"Charles, you can go back to class now, I want to speak with Percy" he said, quickly and to the point.

"But Mr. D-" Beckendorf began.

"Charles! Back to class now!" Mr. D said, this time much louder. He didn't shout, but it was clear there was nothing to debate. Beckendorf reluctantly stood up and left, still not looking at Percy at all. With force, he slammed the door as he stormed out.

"Charles will calm down eventually" he told Percy, not that Percy was wondering. "Now I've heard quite a bit about this fight. Jason and Luke gave me their take, some other people have given me details, and Charles told me what happened." He paused, looking for a reaction from Percy. After there wasn't one, he continued.

"Jason and Luke made it out as if this boy, Nico was it, ran at Charles for no reason, threatening to kill him. They then claim you joined in, and they got involved when it looked like you were about to pull out a knife." Percy took that in, suddenly worried that Mr. D would search Percy. He did indeed have his knife on him, like any other day, and knew he could get expelled for that. Mr. D carried on talking.

"Charles, however, gave me what I believe to be a much fairer account of what happened. He said that the boy, your cousin, ran at him, but the others got involved first, before you. Then, you dragged your cousin away." Percy was surprised Beckendorf had been so honest, he expected him to lie like the others.

"Now Percy, I won't ask you for your account, because I actually don't care about what happened. This is just a major inconvenience for me. Now I personally don't believe that you, as Jason put it, 'pulled out a knife and swung it around like a madman'. That seems slightly over dramatic for you. However, you were involved, I'm sure of that." He sighed, and leaned back in his chair. Percy was suddenly very unsure of his fate. Before, he had been thinking he would be expelled, but now he wasn't sure what would happen.

"Look, this fight happened outside of school hours, and not in the school, but I'm still expected to do something. You won't be expelled, don't worry, but you will have detention, every day after school, for this week-"

"What?! How is that fair?" Percy called out, very suddenly. He wanted to keep quiet, but he just couldn't, not after hearing that.

"Calm down, the others received the same punishment. They won't be in the same detention as you. I'm not that stupid. Fighting is against school rules, for obvious reasons, so you will serve these detentions, and say nothing about it. Now go back to class." He gestured to the door, and Percy stood up. The more he thought about it, the better he felt. He could've gotten a much worse punishment than five detentions; after all, he was pretty sure Jason had a broken nose. Just before he walked out of the door, Percy heard Mr. D talk.

"The detention is in Dr. Thorn's classroom. Be thankful it's not with Mrs. Dodds. Or maybe not." Mr. D chuckled at his own bad joke. "And Percy," he called out finally, looking directly into Percy's sea green eyes, "try not to get in anymore fights, ok?" Percy nodded, and left the room without another word.

* * *

After a pretty boring lunch in which he had sat on his own on a bench, followed by two more boring lessons, Percy was glad for the end of the day. Or at least he would've been had he not had the detention in Dr. Thorn's room. One more hour, he told himself, as he made his way to his Psychology classroom. He entered the class to find the impossibly intimidating Dr. Thorn sitting at his desk.

"Percy? What do you want?" he asked, irritated.

"I, uh, have a detention… in this room?" He was nervous for the second time that day. This time however, he wasn't as insecure about it. Dr. Thorn was genuinely terrifying sometimes.

"Shit." Percy was surprised to hear his teacher swear. "Well I have to be somewhere, but you have to stay. Quite a dilemma isn't it Percy?" He stood up and walked over to Percy. They were around the same height, but Dr. Thorn was a lot skinnier. His heterochromatic eyes had a manic gleam to them, intelligent, but also unbelievably aggressive.

"Percy, can I trust you to stay in this classroom for one hour, and not touch anything? Can I?" His smooth voice seemed to echo in the room, but there was an edge to it, one that could send shivers down a spine.

"Yes sir." Percy replied.

"Good, because you know how I'll feel if you lie to me." He stepped back to his desk, picked up his briefcase and walked to the door. "Sit down Percy, and when this clock says three thirty, you can go. Understood?" Percy nodded. "Good, I like you Percy, don't change that." And then he walked out, the classroom door slamming shut behind him, and Percy was left alone, in a small classroom. With nothing better to do, he sat down and waited.

Nearly twenty minutes had passed, and Percy felt like blowing his brains out. He kept asking himself why he didn't just leave. He definitely would've a week ago. But Dr. Thorn seemed like the kind of guy who would find out, track him down and hurt him in the worst possible way. Also, he'd said he liked Percy. For some reason, Percy didn't want to give him a reason to change his mind. He gazed up at the clock. 2:48. Percy groaned internally, before dropping his head down to the desk. Another five minutes passed, when Percy heard someone walk into the room. He lifted his head up, and his sea green eyes were met with a pair of striking grey, a pair that was very familiar. Annabeth.

The blonde haired girl walked into the classroom, looking around, before her eyes met Percy's. Honestly, she looked lost, as if she were looking for someone. Their eye contact lasted a few seconds, before she looked away. What on earth was she doing in here?

"I'm um, looking for Luke…" she said nervously. "I was told detention was in this room?" She stepped into the room slightly.

"Yeah, my detention's in this room, he's somewhere else" Percy replied.

"Where?" Annabeth responded.

"I don't know; why would I know?" Percy practically snapped at her. He didn't mean to sound bitter or angry, but he did.

This, however, did not cause Annabeth to leave. In fact, she stepped further into the classroom.

"You're sitting at my desk you know?" she said with a smile. As Percy looked around, he realized that he was in fact in Annabeth's class seat.

"Sorry about that" he said with a laugh. Suddenly, memories of their kiss came flooding back to him; this was the first they'd spoken since. He was pretty sure those feelings would be coming back to him soon. Then, Percy stood up and faced Annabeth, who was now only a few feet away, leaning on another desk. Percy did the same.

"You can sit there now if you want" he said, a playful tone to his voice. Annabeth smiled and looked down, before lifting her gaze back up to his eyes. Percy wasn't sure that Annabeth's eyes would ever not amaze him.

"Why did you kiss me?" she asked suddenly. It completely changed the mood in the room. Percy was suddenly very aware of the silence, and its increasing awkwardness. "I'd just like to know" she added. Percy wasn't entirely sure how to act. Should he tell her it meant nothing, even though he was pretty sure that was a lie, or should he tell her about his strange feelings.

"You kissed me first" he settled for, like an idiot. She knew that. Why was he nervous? Percy Jackson didn't get nervous with girls. Annabeth, however, just laughed.

"That's true, I suppose." She smiled. "I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you. I'm not going to make up an excuse. I wanted to." A small smile spread across Percy's face at her words, because honestly he had been thinking the same thing, he just didn't want to say it. "And you know what Percy, I liked it too. And I really would like it to happen again." He looked up and saw that she was closer to him now. He moved forward, closing the distance. They were so close they could hear each other breathe. Then, without a second thought, their lips met, and it was as incredible as the first time, yet completely different. This one wasn't as passionate, or as fuelled by instinct. This was slow, gentle, and literally only lasted two seconds, before Percy pulled away.

"Annabeth, you have a boyfriend" he said, reminding her. It seemed as though she had forgotten.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." She chuckled, before she wrapped her arms around his neck. Percy however, wouldn't be swayed that easily.

"I'm serious, don't you care about him?"

"To be completely honest, no. I like Luke, but I don't love him. I just kinda go out with him because it's fun. But there's no feelings, at least on my part."

"So why haven't you dumped him?" Percy asked.

"Because I haven't had a good enough reason. D'you want to be that reason?" she asked playfully, before brushing his lips with her own again.

"Look," he pulled away, "I don't think I need any more reasons for your friends to hate me, not after today."

"Oh yeah, I heard about the little fight" Annabeth said gleefully. "I wish I'd been there." Percy would rather not talk about the fight, so he was thankful Annabeth didn't delve into details.

"Percy, let me say this. Since I first saw you, you've been on my mind. You're different, out of the ordinary, and I like that. However, I didn't like my feelings for you, because I don't do feelings. I thought maybe if I kissed you, they'd go away, as if that would ever work. It just made me more sure I liked you." She paused, playing with some of Percy's hair. "What I'm trying to say is, I like you, and I think you like me too. I think we should, for lack of a better term, see each other. What do you think?"

* * *

**A/N: I know it's been a while since I updated, and I'm sorry. School started again and I've been really busy, so haven't had loads of time to write. Anyway, R&R, I hope you enjoy it! **


	12. Chapter 12

-Annabeth-

Autumn was clearly setting in in New York. The trees that lined the streets of Greenwich Village and filled Central Park were beginning to brown and lose their leaves, and from Harlem to Brooklyn, there were the first inklings of winter coats coming out of the wardrobe to be worn out and about. The cold wasn't bitter, and on some days it was still so hot and humid you'd swear it was summer, but it was raining more, and the winds were picking up more often. The large streets of Manhattan became extremely difficult to walk through as they were transformed into powerful wind tunnels. The nightlife was starting a bit earlier every day, and while it was still only mid-September, it would not be long at all before the Christmas decorations hung from the tall buildings, and the giant ball would drop in Times Square, marking a New Year for everyone. The tourist season was over for a few months, until December at least, which meant that the native New Yorkers didn't have to deal with crowds of foreigners on their way to work.

On this particular day, the winds weren't strong and the cold wasn't bitter, far from it actually, but the streets were empty. Not a single New Yorker in sight, apart from a girl with blonde curly hair and striking grey eyes. As Annabeth walked down the sidewalk, she looked around, wandering where on earth everybody was. She questioned her sanity; she knew the reputation the area she was in had, and a young, pretty and unaccompanied girl walking down the streets of such a place was nothing short of a recipe for disaster. Yet Annabeth didn't feel worried or scared. She was confident, self-assured and, to be honest, happy. That feeling only intensified as she turned a street corner and saw the gateway to her desired destination, literally and figuratively. The Olympus Estate.

Now for some reason, Annabeth couldn't stop thinking about Italy, and in particular, the relationship she'd had with the local boy, Aldo. She kept playing those events over and over in her head.

_The sand of the beach was smooth against Annabeth's skin as she lay down, the bright rays of the sun blocked by her Gucci sunglasses. The waves softly lapping at the shore would've filled her ears if she did not have her iPod headphones in. As the Green Day song blared from her headphones, she took a minute to appreciate the moment she was in. It was peaceful, the beach was nearly empty and the heat was just wonderful. Annabeth would definitely be going back to America with a tan. Life couldn't get much better than this was all Annabeth could think, as she completely immersed herself in the lyrics. Thalia had gotten her into Green Day a while back, and now they were one of Annabeth's favourite bands. _

_Annabeth was more relaxed than she had been in months, so you can imagine her frustration when she felt a hand tap on her shoulder. Of course, that momentary anger faded as soon as she saw the handsome face of Aldo Romano. He lived just down the street from Annabeth's Aunt and Uncle, and Annabeth had definitely enjoyed getting to know him over the past week. He was nearly 20 years old, tall, athletic, intelligent, and best of all; language was not an issue, as he spoke brilliant English. There was something about his accent that Annabeth found quite sexy, and his deep voice to match didn't help her case. It was nothing serious, they just had fun, and she knew that when she went home, she would probably never speak to him again. There was no commitment, which Annabeth was completely fine with._

_She pulled out her headphones and turned to face him, a broad smile growing on her face that matched his. Aldo's jawline was covered in neatly shaven stubble, and he had long curly hair that would've framed his face if it were not held back by a headband. He was only wearing his swimming trunks, which meant Annabeth had a great view of his brilliantly chiselled chest, adorned with a shark tooth necklace and some beads. He leaned in close and pecked her on the lips. _

"Ciao_ Annabeth." He said, as he stroked her hair. "How are you today?" he asked her._

"_I'm good, the weather is great." She exclaimed. She always spoke slightly slower around him, just in case he didn't pick up on anything she said._

"Sì, _this is a typical Italian summer, and I have a beautiful girl in my arms." His accent definitely worked its charm on Annabeth, but it was the words he was saying that really made her like him. Luke never spoke like this to her, never treated her like royalty. Not that she expected him to, but that didn't mean she wouldn't like it. While this was only a holiday romance, she definitely felt something for Aldo, and that was in large part to his smooth words and charming personality._

"_Come Annabeth, let's swim in the sea." Aldo announced, standing up and pulling her up with him. He placed another kiss on her lips before running straight into the Mediterranean Sea. Annabeth had a quick moment where realisation overcame her; she was cheating on Luke, her boyfriend. But another, slightly more worrying thought crossed her mind; she didn't care. With that, she ran after Aldo, and into the endless blue mass in front of her. _

That feeling, on that beach, on that day, was the exact same feeling she felt right now. Standing in front of the Olympus Estate, and the temptations that lay inside, almost all in the form of the raven-haired boy Percy Jackson. Annabeth knew that if she walked in, she would be cheating on Luke, but she also didn't care. Percy was exciting, Luke wasn't. Percy was interesting, Luke wasn't. Percy was dangerous, and Luke definitely wasn't.

Of course, Percy was expecting her. How could he have said no to her offer? She had come clean to him about her feelings, and had gotten what she wanted. It wasn't until after Annabeth arrived home that night that she even realised she'd been terrified in that moment. Terrified of rejection, humiliation. She had gone against what she knew, thrown caution to the wind, and now she was 'seeing' Percy Jackson. That was all she could really call it right now. Sure they had kissed a few times, and there was a definite connection between them, one neither of them completely understood, but she couldn't really say they were an item, particularly when Annabeth still had a boyfriend. She hadn't gotten round to dumping Luke yet, she was waiting for the opportune moment. After over a year together, a text message would be plain insulting. Yet still, she wasn't overly bothered about hurting Luke's feelings.

As a few people began to stare at her, Annabeth realised that she had been standing in front of the gate for a good while now. The early autumn chill was not too bad today, but the sky was that ominous colour where you cant be too sure that it won't rain within the next hour or two. Taking a deep breath, Annabeth walked through the estate entrance.

Now Annabeth had often heard rumours about the famed Olympus Estate, usually on the evening news, related to some sort of gang crime, but she had never paid attention to them. To her, it was in the bad part of town; the other side of the tracks, a place Annabeth Chase wouldn't be seen dead in. Of course, at this moment, she wished that she had listened when people brought it up, instead of zoning out, because then she might have some kind of feel for the place she had just so confidently walked into. That confidence had lasted all of ten seconds before the realization set in. Everywhere around her was bricked and grey, and there were groups of people standing in clumps, leaning against walls and railings, some on bikes, some smoking; there was even a kid lifting weights on a bench. One by one, they were turning to look at her. Usually this wouldn't bother Annabeth – she loved turning heads when she went anywhere – but something about this time was different. Unlike at school, she was not safe here. What would she do if one of the people tried to threaten her? Panic suddenly overwhelmed her, and she knew she had to keep it under control. And then she saw him.

Walking out from an alleyway, Percy Jackson looked even better than usual. His hair was the same, his clothes were similar and his sea green eyes still had that glint in them that could drive Annabeth crazy, but right now, Percy looked relaxed. Comfortable. It struck Annabeth that she'd never seen him around his home before, that whenever she'd seen him, it had been in her world. Now, she was in his world, and he was here to be her tour guide. He stopped a few steps in front of her, and smiled that familiar, troublemaker smile.

"Welcome to my humble abode Annabeth Chase." He held his arms out wide as he said this, and it gave Annabeth a great view of his biceps. She laughed despite herself, which made Percy laugh too.

"So how are you?" he asked, stepping slightly closer to her.

"I'm alright I guess. Never really been to this area of town before" she admitted to him.

"Anyone give you any trouble?" he asked, sounding concerned, but not overly. Annabeth shook her head.

"No, I just feel like everyone's staring at me."

"That's because they are" he replied, chuckling. "You do kinda stand out." She hit him playfully. The two of them stood together in silence for a few seconds, neither knowing what to say.

"So your apartment is near?" Annabeth asked finally, tilting her head towards Percy as she spoke.

"Are you trying to indicate something?" he replied, the smirk still plastered on his lips. Annabeth just laughed again, before Percy turned and walked away, leaving her slightly shocked.

"Percy," she called, "where are you going?" He turned, his smirking face unchanged, that mischievous glint appearing in his eye.

"Where d'you think?" he called back, "you coming?" and not waiting for a reply, he turned back around and carried on at a brisk pace. Annabeth really couldn't help but smile, as she took off, jogging slightly to catch up with him.

* * *

When Percy stopped walking, Annabeth assumed it was so that she could catch up with him, but that was not the case. When she finally reached him, she found him deep in conversation with the largest kid she'd ever seen. It was the same kid who'd been lifting weights on the bench, and they were clearly doing their job. The boy had a Carmelo Anthony New York Knicks jersey on, and Annabeth could see the rippling muscles on his arms. This boy was at least six foot six, with a small patch of brown hair and huge brown eyes, and he looked angry. It wouldn't surprise her to find out that he was always scowling, because it certainly looked that way.

"Oh, hey Annabeth," Percy had just noticed her next to him, " this is my brother, Tyson." Brother? Percy had a brother? And this was him? This giant of a boy was Percy's brother? She must've looked very confused, because Percy and Tyson both burst out laughing.

"I didn't know you had a brother." She muttered quietly, once the two had calmed down. It didn't seem that funny to her.

"Well I don't really, Tyson's my half brother. Same dad." That made more sense to Annabeth, because the two boys shared very few qualities.

"Well it's nice to meet you Tyson." Annabeth said, extending her hand. Tyson stared at it for a second before picking up the weights again, leaving Annabeth's hand suspended in the air. She slowly raised it to brush her hair behind her ear, slightly embarrassed. Percy just shook his head, before slapping the large boy on the shoulder.

"I'll see you around big guy" he said, and Tyson just nodded in reply, clearly getting back into his weights. Percy took Annabeth by the arm and led her away, no doubt towards his apartment.

"He seems nice." It was all Annabeth could say about him.

"He's not the friendliest guy in the world, but then again not a lot of people around here are" Percy said. "He is, however, a good brother, and very useful to have in a fight, which around here can be priceless." Percy talked as if fights were nothing, and to him they probably weren't.

"Yeah, I guess people see his size and run" Annabeth chuckled.

"He definitely got the height gene," Percy laughed. "But no one around here runs from a fight" he added, slightly too serious. Annabeth now wanted to change the topic.

"So you've lived here all your life?" It was all she could think to ask at this time, and silently she cursed herself for such a mundane question.

"Yeah, born and raised. It's not actually that bad if you get used to it" Percy said, almost defensively. Annabeth just nodded, but Percy persisted. "I'm serious Annabeth. In areas like this, we have community; we get along, there are hardly any secrets. We're the people that society has given up on, so we stick together." He stopped abruptly. It sounded as if Percy had meant to say so much more, it felt like he had been a few seconds away from pouring his guts out, but composed himself at the last.

"Percy…" Annabeth began, not quite knowing what to say.

"It's fine, I don't expect you to understand how I feel about it" he muttered, walking at an ever so slightly faster pace. Annabeth matched it.

"Look Percy, if you ever want to talk, I like to think I'm an okay listener" she said, turning to smile at him. But he would not meet her eye, instead looking straight ahead.

"Can we change the subject please?" he asked, still not meeting her eye. As if on cue, a shout was heard from a terrace above them.

"Yo Perce! Who's your new friend?" Annabeth looked up to see a short boy with long black hair leaning over a railing. Before she could even blink, he was climbing over and jumping down. It was quite a distance, but the boy made it, seemingly unfazed. Now that they were face to face, Annabeth took in his whole demeanour. Clearly there was a black theme going on, with the black hair, tank top and trousers. He had eyes that looked empty and hollow, sunken in, but that also had a glint to them, not too dissimilar to the look Annabeth so often recognised in the eyes of Percy. The boy had tight muscles, and his arms were covered in bruises and cuts. Quickly, he pulled out a cigarette from his back pocket and put it between his lips, igniting it with a lighter.

"Annabeth," Percy said, turning to face her, "I don't believe you've had the pleasure of meeting Nico, my cousin." So this was the famous Nico, the kid who'd burned the desk, and more recently the kid who'd kicked the shit out of Beckendorf. Honestly, Annabeth wasn't quite sure what she expected, but it was not this short, angry looking boy.

"You're the kid who beat up Beckendorf?" Annabeth asked. She wasn't angry with him or anything like that, it was just the only question she could think of. Nico was, after all, nearly a foot shorter than Charles. However, as soon as she said that, the mischievous grin disappeared from Nico's face completely, replaced instead by a look of disapproval, anger and disgust. He turned to Percy and, completely ignoring Annabeth's presence, began to berate him.

"What the fuck are you doing with one of those rich kids? Seriously?"

"Nico-"

"No Percy! What the hell is your problem?!"

"Just hold-"

"Were you trying to piss me off?" This went on for a while, Annabeth reduced to standing around like a fool. If she'd known that her presence would annoy Percy's friends this much she never would have set out in the first place.

"Look, Percy, I can go if you want, I mean-" she was cut off.

"No, you're staying" he said, with authority. Annabeth quite liked it; it at least told her he wanted her around. "Nico, she's not like the others, trust me." Percy was practically pleading with the shorter boy, however it seemed as if he was talking to an emotionless brick wall. Nico's eyes darted between the two, then he shook head and walked off, around the corner, towards the courtyard where Percy and Annabeth had just seen Tyson.

"Well that went well" Annabeth muttered to herself. She and Percy had simply arranged to hang out, nothing serious, and it already seemed to be causing a lot of unhappiness.

"Yeah, I guess…" Percy almost whispered; he was still looking in the direction Nico had walked off in. Then he span on the spot and gestured forward.

"My apartment is just down this building. Shall we?" Annabeth smiled and nodded, following as Percy led the way.

"We aren't going to run into anymore of your friends are we?" she joked. Percy let out a laugh and looked back at her, smiling.

"I think we've met all the crazy ones." He countered. Oh how wrong he was.

* * *

"Home sweet home." Percy announced, as he opened his front door, allowing Annabeth to walk past him. She took a minute to look around, take in the surroundings; after all, she had a feeling they may become very familiar to her in the near future. The apartment was small, very small in comparison to Annabeth's house. In fact, she was pretty sure that her bedroom was the same size as Percy's living room. The kitchen was joined to the room, and there was a long corridor at the end that led to more rooms, no doubt smaller than this one. Percy's home was not a tidy place. There was a pizza box on the coffee table, with four slices left in it. Old newspapers and magazines were piled up, and there was an ashtray with what looked like week old cigarettes in them.

"It's definitely cosy." Annabeth said, and she was not lying. Suddenly, her mind was bombarded with images of her and Percy in this apartment, having takeaway, watching bad TV, kissing on the sofa. Maybe he was thinking the same thing. Hopefully.

"Well this is how the other side live Rich Girl." Percy stated with a laugh, emphasising the last two words.

"Don't call me that Percy" Annabeth replied, half joking half serious. She really didn't want to get into a debate over their economic situation.

"What would you rather I call you then? Clever Clogs? Wise Girl? Undeniably Attractive?" Percy asked, stepping closer to her. She, in turn, stepped closer too, until they were close enough to feel each other's breath.

"That last one wasn't so bad" she uttered, barely audible, just above a whisper.

"Well then," Percy said, leaning so close their lips were almost touching, "Wise Girl it is." He subsequently burst out laughing, as Annabeth smacked his arm. He was being deliberately frustrating, but for some reason Annabeth didn't mind.

"Yeah, well you're… a Seaweed Brain" she fired back, suddenly aware how stupid it sounded.

"Seaweed Brain?" he said, cocking an eyebrow. He was laughing under his breath.

"It was all I could think of ok?" Annabeth smiled, and that made Percy smile too. She was enjoying the intimacy of this moment.

"Seriously though," Percy looked at her, "make yourself comfortable." He gestured to the sofa, while he went into the kitchen. "You want anything to drink?" he called.

"Just water thanks" she replied, before slumping down onto his sofa. It was old, green and had a fair few old food stains on it, but it was incredibly comfortable. Annabeth rearranged the cushions until she was satisfied, by which point Percy had returned. He placed a glass of water on the table, and took a sip of his own water before putting that down. Then he sat down next to her, so close that their arms were touching. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by a knock on the door.

"You gonna get that?" Annabeth asked lightly, with a playful, innocent smile. Percy got up and walked the short distance to the door, and opened it.

All of a sudden, a tornado of talking and long hair burst in. It was a girl. The more Annabeth looked at her, the more she realised how beautiful this girl was. Who the hell was she? She had long cinnamon brown hair, and wore a simple white top, with fairly short shorts and no shoes. She was not quite as tall as Annabeth, and her skin was incredibly pale. This did not look like a person who left her home much. Yet still, that did not subtract from her beauty. She looked almost like a very well kept porcelain doll. But none of this answered Annabeth's initial questions. Who was she and why was she here? Now that she looked closely at the situation, she saw just how close the girl was standing to Percy; she was touching his arm and they were speaking quietly. Annabeth listened closely to see if she could catch any of it.

"I need you."

"Calypso, now's really not a good time."

"But it is for me."

"I can't right now."

"Percy-"

"Not right now."

Annabeth got the feeling that this was a private conversation. She had also worked out that this girl, whoever she was, knew Percy and was probably quite close with him too. The idea that Percy could have a girlfriend had never struck Annabeth as strongly as right now. She was almost positive that she was looking at one of Percy's ex's. That wave of jealousy rose up inside her again, similar to when she saw him kiss Rachel that night at Luke's. She stood up from the sofa and spoke up.

"Uh, Percy, is something wrong?" Her voice was quiet, but they both stopped talking immediately. Percy met her eyes, before looking away, while the girl – Annabeth assumed her name was Calypso – just stared at her, a look of indifference across her face.

"No," she said lightly, "nothing that concerns you."

"Excuse me?" Annabeth questioned.

"I said," the girl said, pausing for emphasis, "this doesn't concern you." Annabeth was left slightly speechless as the girl turned back to Percy. He however, was looking directly at Annabeth. Calypso diverted his attention back to her, but Percy stopped her just before she began talking again.

"No Calypso, I'm busy right now. I'll talk to you later." He said it with such finality, and went to walk past her, but she grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn and face her again.

"What are you doing Percy? Are you seriously choosing this bimbo over me?" she spat. Annabeth instinctively jumped into defence mode.

"Hey! I'm not a bimbo! Who the hell even are you?" she shouted. This girl Calypso, which was a stupid name anyway, thought that she could just stand there and insult Annabeth? If that was the case, she had another thing coming. Annabeth Chase had never been one to back away from a fight, or in this case argument.

"Who am I?" Calypso spoke, too innocently for Annabeth's liking. "I'm no one really, just the girl that's been screwing Percy regularly for a good year." Her words increased the tension tenfold. Despite her presumptions, hearing with her own ears that this girl had been romantically involved with Percy hurt her. It hurt her more than she would've liked to admit. Annabeth heard white noise for a second, only broken by her heavy breathing.

"So what, you can't bear the idea that he'd be with someone else so you came to stop it?" Annabeth was suddenly determined to win this argument, as petty as that sounded. She would not make a fool of herself.

"Someone has a feeling of self importance." Calypso quipped. "Tell me, has living in a five bedroom house made you feel that way? Or was it perhaps the designer brands that you buy on one of daddy's ten credit cards? Maybe it was the fact that no one's ever said no to you?" Calypso was not loud like Annabeth, but her words seemed carefully chosen, as if she were trying to poke at every weak bone in Annabeth's body. It was almost creepy.

"You don't know anything about my life!" Annabeth practically screamed at her. This girl didn't have to deal with the crushing expectations of a pushy mother. She didn't have a social reputation that she was forced to maintain under false pretences. "You think because you've lived in a shitty apartment all your life that you're suddenly the queen of everything? That you 'know people'? You're just a cheap skank who would kill to have the socks from my drawer, which, lets face it, are more expensive than your entire wardrobe." Annabeth wanted to wound Calypso with her words, but for a second she felt like she'd gone too far. Calypso pounced.

"So that 'shitty apartment' that makes you better than me? Well Percy's lived in an identical one his entire life. Were you talking about him too? Or is it just me?" Annabeth suddenly realised what she'd said. What if she'd offended Percy? She'd run head first into an argument and not thought about what she'd said. Surely Percy would be offended, insulted, hurt. "I'm just wondering, that's all" Calypso continued. "Does he not come under that category of worthless poor people? Him and I have more in common than you and him ever will. Just think about that."

"Calypso! Enough!" Percy had been silent the whole time, almost as if he'd blended into the furniture, become invisible. "You should leave. I'll talk to you later." He spoke deadpan, giving no indications of his emotions. Calypso waited for a minute, swaying very slightly from left to right, before nodding and walking to the door. Just before she left, she blew a kiss to Percy then made eye contact with Annabeth. There was no fear or intimidation in her eyes. Her dark almond eyes had that same mischievous glint that Percy's and Nico's had; it must've been an Olympus Estate thing, only Calypso's was more dangerous. She was so clearly unafraid of Annabeth. She winked at her, before walking out, slamming the door shut behind her.

The silence that engulfed the room was deafening. Annabeth was afraid to even breathe, let alone look at Percy. He must be mad, must be furious. She'd practically called his home, his area and his life worthless. All she'd done all day was prove that she didn't belong in his life. None of his friends or family liked her. Hell, she didn't even feel safe right now. Yet the idea of suddenly not seeing Percy, especially when she had been so close to 'getting to know him', hurt. It hurt more than she thought it would. What had become of Annabeth Chase?

Percy was the first to move. He turned around and faced her. His face was emotionless, but his eyes told a different story. The beautiful sea green that they were looked distorted. It was impossible for Annabeth to tell what he was feeling. He suddenly walked forward, and when he passed Annabeth, no doubt heading for the kitchen, she spoke up.

"Percy I'm sorry" she said, quickly. It halted Percy, and Annabeth used that as a cue to carry on. "I didn't mean what… what I said, I was… just trying to…" she was babbling now, "I don't know, I guess I wanted to hurt her" she muttered. Percy turned his head, looking straight into Annabeth's eyes. Then he did the last thing she expected. He rushed forward and kissed her. She was so shocked that it took her a good few seconds to react, by which point they were practically on the sofa. As Annabeth kissed back, she found that she couldn't keep up. Percy was moving fast, his kisses hard and harsh, not soft and tender like the first time. Annabeth's mind quickly wandered to a thought: does he kiss Calypso like this? With so much emotion? However, she was pulled out of that by Percy attempting to remove her shirt. Annabeth assisted, and when they were both shirtless, they commenced with the animal instinct again. Annabeth became lost in a world of Percy Jackson.

* * *

**A/N: I know this update is late, and for that I can only apologise. It's hard find time to write with all my school work but I've tried hard. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter, and I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Thanks.**


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